Raffaelle Palladino has done well since leaving Monza for Fiorentina

Monza vs FiorentinaMonday, January 13th, 7:45 p.m

A difficult task for our friend Tobias yesterday in Italy when champions Inter took an early lead in Venezia, but the score remained 1-0 and his bet on the Asian handicap was wiped out. While he takes a well-deserved break, we begin our time with a trip to Italy, where Fiorentina visit miserable Monza.

The hosts picked up a meager 10 points from 19 games and lost eight of their last ten games in the top flight, including the last five. Monza have never really recovered from losing inspirational coach Raffaelle Palladino to Fiorentina and tonight they face the man who took them to Serie A and kept them there.

Former Italy, Milan and Lazio star Alessandro Nesta took over the reins from Palladino but stayed until December before being sacked by his former Milan bosses Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi. His successor Salvatore Bocchetti has no experience as a head coach, having been a youth team manager and assistant at Hellas Verona.

Fiorentina are winless in five games in all competitions, but that run also included games against Bologna, Juventus and Napoli. They have actually won four of their last six away games in the league, and all of those wins have come against teams in the bottom half.