Fiorentina have a perfect opportunity to make amends for Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Juventus in the Serie A as tomorrow they cross swords with the runaway league leaders again, this time in an Europa League round of 16 first leg in Turin.
The Florence team were the only side to hand Juventus their only league upset so far – 4-2 on the eighth day. Since then, however, the Bianconeri never looked back and now they’re set to claim their 30th Scudetto.
Fiorentina, on their count, had to contend with a cruel run of injuries to some of their key players including chief strikers Mario Gomez and Giuseppe Rossi.
Despite the run of bad luck, Vincenzo Montella’s side are currently fourth in the Serie A standings and have also reached the Coppa Italia final for the first time in 13 years. They play Napoli on May 3.
Juventus and Fiorentina enter tomorrow’s game in completely different spirits.
Fiorentina have collected only one point from the last available 12 but Juve are in scorching form – eight wins and two draws since the turn of the year.
There is also great contrast in the way these two Italian sides have arrived to this Euro encounter.
Juventus, who finished third in Group B of the Champions League behind Spain’s Real Madrid and Galatasaray, of Turkey, were demoted to the Europa League round of 32. En route to meeting Fiorentina tomorrow, Juve eliminated Trabzonspor, also of Turkey, 4-0 on aggregate.
Fiorentina, who like Barcelona and Hamburg have lost finals in all three major UEFA club competitions – the European Cup (against Real Madrid) in 1957, the Cup Winners’ Cup (against Atletico Madrid) in 1962 and the UEFA Cup (against Juventus) in 1990, came through the group stage undefeated.
In Group E, the Viola played modest opponents in Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Pacos de Ferreira and Pandurii Targu Jiu as they ran away with the group, collecting 16 points in the process.
In the round of 32, Montella’s side knocked out Danish outfit Esbjerg 4-2 on aggregate.
The last time Fiorentina reached the round of 16 in the Europa League was in 2007/08, prevailing over Everton only after a penalty shoot-out. Eventually, that year, Fiorentina, then coached by current Italy mentor Cesare Prandelli, were ousted by Glasgow Rangers in the semi-finals.
Juventus have an almost even record in their previous 11 meetings with fellow Italian clubs in Euro competitions – three wins, four draws and four defeats, including the two clashes with Fiorentina in a two-legged UEFA Cup final.
In the 1990 showdown, Dino Zoff’s Juventus overcame Fio-rentina 3-1 in the first leg before settling for a 0-0 draw in the return match.
At the time, Fiorentina were coached by Francesco Graziani and had the great Roberto Baggio in their ranks. He joined Juventus the following summer.
Given that next May’s final will be staged at the Juventus Stadium, the ‘Old Lady’ have a huge incentive to go all the way in this competition.
Juventus won the UEFA Cup three times but their most recent success in the competition was in 1993. Their last showing in the title match dates back to almost two decades – in 1994/95 against Parma.
Antonio Conte was part of the Juve side, then coached by Giovanni Trapattoni, that thrashed Borussia Dortmund 6-1 in the 1993 two-legged final.
In fact, this season Conte is the only coach left in the competition who won the UEFA Cup as a player.
Tomorrow, Fiorentina have a tall order to become only the second side, after Bayern Munich (2-0 in last season’s Champions League quarter-finals) to beat the Bianconeri at the Juventus Stadium in Euro competitions.
Although Juventus start favourites to eliminate Fiorentina and make it to the last eight, the undisputed Serie A leaders should not undervalue their opponents’ chances of progression.