Fiorentina’s 100th anniversary season began last week with a thrashing at Roma’s hands, so there’s extra pressure on the club to get the home opener right. Maybe it’s a good thing that it comes against newly-promoted Frosinone. The Canarini are back in the top tier after a couple seasons in Serie B and, after falling to Juventus 0-1 last week, are looking for their first points as well.
The match will be played on Saturday, 29 August 2026, at 17:30 GMT/11:30 AM EST at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in
beautiful Firenze. The forecast calls for a clear, humid evening, but expect plenty of heat following reports of the Curva Fiesole preparing a tifo; whether that’s to celebrate the centenary or to express further disdain for Joseph Commisso will only become clear before kickoff.
1. Set pieces
Fiorentina’s feebleness at set pieces last year resulted in a stream of cheap goals conceded that were never made up at the other end. The arrival of Giuseppe Foti might change that, although one game is way too small a sample size to judge him on. Defending dead balls remains a problem, though, as Roma got several good looks off free kicks and corners. At the other end, Radu Drǎgușin at least demonstrated an impressive vertical leap that, combined with the height of the other signings (Mateo Pellegrino, Víctor Valdepeñas, and Arthur Atta are all big) should eventually lead to more opportunities.
Frosinone, on the other hand, has plenty of tall guys but looked really bad at set pieces last week. The Juvenuts’ goal came off a corner and they had a double handful of good looks that they barely missed. On the other hand, the Canarini hit the upright off a late free kick by flooding the back post with big bodies. Because Fiorentina will have the initiative in possession, I’d expect to see a lot more set piece opportunities in this one for the good guys. If they can make those opportunities count, maybe we’re getting somewhere.
2. Emotional resilience
Fabio Grosso and company bear an enormous burden of expectation. Last year set everyone on edge. This is the most expensively-assembled squad in club history. The management is feuding with the best player. It laid an egg in the first Serie A game of the season. And oh yeah, it’s the centenary. Even this early in the season, even with so many comings and goings, there’s a sense of fragility around this team: how many missteps can it make before everything falls apart like it did under Stefano Pioli in 2025?
Fabio Grosso’s main job is to quiet all those narratives. A win here won’t erase last week’s mistakes but it’ll at least tell fans that no, he’s not going to challenge the Piolus for the ghastly honor of longest losing streak in Viola history. It’s the second week of the season and no game is a must-win yet but for a variety of stupid narrative reasons (e.g. idiot bloggers stoking the fires of discontent), Fiorentina needs to put a stop to the murmurs that it’s all going to go wrong again because those murmurs can fuel a dive straight to the bottom, quod erat demonstrandum.
3. The possession battle
The first time I fully realized that possession isn’t necessarily positive was watching Paulo Sousa’s Fiorentina pass the ball endlessly across the back three. Single-game possession statistics are often more reflective of game state than dominance. Whichever team has a lead can sit back, invite pressure, and look to break. That maximizes its opportunities while minimizing its risks. Indeed, keeping is the riskiest approach because losing it means getting countered, a fact that’s come to dominate the modern tactical landscape.
This game sets up a particularly interesting dynamic. Frosinone is the Serie B runner-up and has spent about a tenth of Fiorentina’s transfer outlay this summer. Common sense dictates that the Canarini will park the bus and look to play on the break. Grosso, however, prioritizes compactness over all, especially after getting ripped apart by Roma. Those are the ingredients for a pretty ugly game with neither side taking any risks because they’ll both think the downside outweighs the upside. The home crowd is the variable: if the gutted Franchi can provide the impetus, the Viola could respond with swagger and confidence to blow this one open. Or they could try to play that way and get done on the break.
Possible lineups
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Ted’s Memorial Blind Guess Department
The bookies have Fiorentina as strong favorites for all the usual reasons: bigger name, higher wage bill, splashy transfer window, home game, et cetera. The difference, of course, is that the Viola folded like IKEA shelving in a thunderstorm last week while Frosinone came close to taking a point of Juve. The venue certainly matters but I worry about the hosts playing too tight and letting go of the rope if a single thing goes wrong. That’s DNA, baby.
Even so, I’ll take Fiorentina to get the centenary season off right with a 2-1 win. This feels like the perfect place for a classic Luca Ranieri back post header off a corner and I’ll say that Franco Mastantuono grabs the other with a strike from distance, while Antonio Raimondo pulls back a late consolation from an Aleksa Terzić (yes, that one) cross. I’m not expecting much of a spectacle, honestly, as the teams basically take turns booting the ball back and forth without much midfield inventiveness, but I think the talent advantage eventually comes up Viola.
Forza Viola!
