Fiorentina vs Sporting Braga

Fiorentina will be looking to finish what they started with a 4-0 first-leg win at Sporting Braga last week when the two sides meet in the return leg of their Europa Conference League knockout playoffs at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. 

Fiorentina’s outrageous form in the Europa Conference League has seen them win their last five matches in Europe’s third-tier competition by an aggregate score of 17-2, a run bookended by a scintillating first-leg win in Portugal. The continuation of the club’s longest-ever winning streak in UEFA competitions looks inevitable, with Fiorentina also going unbeaten in their last seven European encounters against Portuguese sides (W4, D3), keeping a clean sheet in the most recent five. Going the distance in the Europa Conference League might be the Italians’ best chance of securing European football for next season. After going winless in their last six Serie A outings (D2, L4), Vincenzo Italiano’s men are stuck in the lower reaches without realistic hopes of making up ground on European placings. 

In the meantime, visiting Sporting Braga have a mountain to climb following a first-leg fiasco, though they did bounce back at the weekend, cruising to a 2-0 home league win over Arouca. Still only two points adrift of the Primeira Liga’s second automatic Champions League group stage qualification spot, Braga could drop their faint hopes of pulling off what would otherwise be a historic comeback. Artur Jorge’s men are by now all to aware of their dreadful away form in the knockout stages of major European competitions, having lost seven of their last eight such contests (D1). If that’s not enough to dampen the spirits in the visiting camp, they have worryingly conceded 2+ goals in five of those eight matches.