Fiorentina vs Basel

Fiorentina and Basel are set to lock horns at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final tie.

Complacency nearly got the better of Fiorentina in the quarter-finals as they succumbed to a 3-2 second-leg loss to Lech Poznan after comfortably dispatching them 4-1 in the first leg. Since capturing a place in the semi-finals of major European competition for the first time since the 2014/15 Europa League, Vincenzo Italiano’s men have lost their feet, racking up just one win in five competitive outings (D2, L2). However, Fiorentina thumped Serie A relegation candidate Sampdoria 5-0 in their most recent home match to snap a four-match winless run in Florence (D3, L1). Playing at Artemio Franchi has been their strong suit in Europe, with ‘La Viola’ finding the net in their last 14 home games on the continental front since losing 2-0 to Sevilla in 2015.

Meanwhile, Basel defied the odds to overcome a more heavily fancied Nice side 4-3 on aggregate in the Europa Conference League quarter-finals to set up their first semi-final appearance in major European competition since the 2012/13 Europa League. Keen to become the first Swiss club to reach the European title decider, the visitors rally their troops quickly following a disheartening 2-0 home loss to Zurich last weekend. Heiko Vogel’s men have become somewhat ‘stalemate specialists’ in the Europa Conference League, with their last four European fixtures ending level after the 90 minutes. But they’ll be confident about turning the corner here after winning back-to-back competitive away matches ‘to one.’ Moreover, Basel picked up a 2-1 win in their only previous European visit to Fiorentina.