Serie A

Venezia vs. Fiorentina: both sides eye their first points

Paolo Vanoli begins his second spell with a return to Venezia as both teams look to get off the mark

Venezia vs. Fiorentina opens Matchday 4 of Serie A. After parting company with Fabio Grosso and bringing back Paolo Vanoli, the Viola travel to the Penzo in search of their first points of the season. The hosts have the same objective after suffering a narrow defeat away to Frosinone last time out.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

There have been 22 previous competitive meetings between the two sides in Venice: 10 wins for Venezia (most recently 2-1 in Serie A 2024/25), 6 draws (most recently 0-0 in the 1999/00 Coppa Italia) and 6 wins for Fiorentina (most recently 2-0 in Serie B 2003/04).

Fiorentina have lost each of their last 5 Serie A away matches against Venezia: their most recent win there was a 6-2 victory on 9 October 1966.

Venezia have lost 5 consecutive Serie A matches across the end of 2024/25 and the start of 2026/27: their most recent win came on 12 May 2025, against Fiorentina (Venezia-Fiorentina 2-1).

DID YOU KNOW?

Venezia have conceded 11 goals in their first 5 competitive matches of the 2026/27 season: 7 in Serie A and 4 in the Coppa Italia.

Venezia have 0 points after their first 3 Serie A matches: the last time this happened was in 2001/02, a season that ended with the Lagunari being relegated to Serie B.

Fiorentina have 0 points after their first 3 Serie A matches: the only previous time this happened was in 1935/36, when the Tuscan side eventually secured survival with a 12th-place finish.

COACHES and PLAYERS

This will be the 5th official meeting between Giovanni Stroppa and Paolo Vanoli: in the previous 4, the Fiorentina coach recorded 2 wins, with 1 draw and 1 win for the Venezia coach.

Their most recent meeting came on 2 June 2024 in the second leg of the Serie B playoff final: Vanoli’s Venezia beat Stroppa’s Cremonese 1-0 at the Penzo, securing promotion to Serie A thanks to Gytkjaer’s decisive goal.

Giovanni Stroppa has lost 34 of his 46 matches as a coach in Serie A.

Paolo Vanoli faces one of his former clubs: he coached Venezia from October 2022 to June 2024, leading the club to promotion to Serie A. He took charge of 70 competitive matches for the Arancioneroverdi, recording 35 wins, 16 draws and 19 defeats.

Paolo Vanoli is taking over a team mid-season for the third time in his coaching career: he has never won his first match in charge on the previous 2 occasions (Venezia-Reggina 1-2, Serie B 2022/23, and Genoa-Fiorentina 2-2, Serie A 2025/26).

Mateo Pellegrino scored against Torino: 38% of his goals in Italy have come against the Piedmont side, 6 out of 16 in total.

DISCIPLINE

Suspended: none

Cautioned: none

REFEREE

FOURNEAU (ALASSIO - BARONE) IV: AYROLDI: VAR: DIONISI: AVAR: MAGGIONI

UPCOMING MATCHES

Venezia-Lazio (19/9, 20.45)

Fiorentina-Napoli (20/9, 12.30)

(Photo Getty Images)