Fiorentina vs. Juventus Predictions: Vlahovic to fire the Old Lady to triumph

Wednesday night sees the 2nd semi final first leg in the Coppa Italia being played between Fiorentina and Juventus. The match is being played at Artemio Franchi Stadium with a 8pm kick off. The game will be shown in the UK on Premier Sports. 

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri comes into this tie with a decimated squad. He is missing Weston McKennie, Federico Bernardeschi, Giorgio Chiellini, Daniele Rugani, Denis Zakaria, Paulo Dybala, and Alex Sandro as well as season long injuries to Federico Chiesa and Kaio Jorge. Allegri has also confirmed that Leonardo Bonucci will be rested here after playing against Empoli with a knock. 

Regardless of the threadbare team that Allegri is able to put out here, Juve continue to churn out the results in Serie A. The Old Lady are unbeaten in 13 in the league and will be a difficult proposition for any side, even given their injury problems. 

Fiorentina are having an extremely inconsistent season, winning three of their last six in the league and coming into this semi final courtesy of a shock last minute win over Atalanta in the previous round, yet suffering poor losses to Torino, Lazio and Sassuolo last time out. 

This contest is always a spicy one (some would say a one-sided rivalry), but it will be especially explosive tonight as it will likely see the return of Dusan Vlahovic to Fiorentina for the first time since his €80m move in the January transfer window. 

I've started with an interesting looking bet365 boost for my first pick, which is for Juve to win and both teams to score on the night. This selection has been boosted from 9/2 all the way out to 6/1. 

As mentioned earlier, Juve are on a stunning unbeaten run which has lifted them back into the European spots and with a small sniff of a title shot. The addition of Vlahovic in attack was huge and despite the injury crisis within the club, I still fancy them to win here. Juve are actually scoring more goals away (1.71) from the Allianz Stadium than at home (1.31) and are conceding less than a goal a game on average. 

In terms of BTTS La Viola are seeing it happen 50% of the time at home and Juve 64% of the time on the road. With a weakened defence for Juve, I fully expect both sides to bag here. 

My second pick is based around the returning hero/villain Dusan Vlahovic. The 22-year-old Serbian is one of the hottest striking prospects in European football and was heavily linked to a move to the Premier League and Arsenal, before his big money move to Turin. After 21 goals in the league last year, Vlahovic had already netted 17 this term for Fiorentina before his transfer and has taken no time at all to settle at Juve - scoring three in his first four - including a goal on his debut and a brace against Empoli, last time out. 

I like the price on him to have 3+ shots on target at Paddy Power which is 10/3. Vlahovic has cleared this line in two of his first four games and has 10 shots on target in those four games from 16 shots. In total he has cleared this line eight times so far this season and has a colossal 44 shots on target from just 91 shots. 

If you like these selections then good luck and remember to bet responsibly.