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Fiorentina will host Viktoria Plzen at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Thursday in the second leg of the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League campaign.
The home side have endured a rather disappointing run of results of late and will be looking to turn all that aroud on the continental stage this week. They played out a 1-1 draw against Genoa in their last match, finding themselves a goal down at the break before Jonathan Ikone headed home the leveler early after the restart.
Viktoria Plzen have also had their struggles in the league of late but remain hopeful of advancement on the continental stage. They beat league leaders Slavia Praha 1-0 last time out in the top flight with league's top scorer Pavel Sulc netting a late and largely deserved winner for Miroslav Koubek's side.
The two sides played out a goalless draw in the first-leg clash last week, with both sides guilty of lacking inventiveness in the final third. Fiorentina will, however, feel they deserved more from the game after dominating possession for vast portions of the match and will now hope they can complete the job on home turf on Thursday.
Fiorentina vs Viktoria Plzen Head-to-Head and Key Numbers
- Thursday's game will mark just the second meeting between Fiorentina and Viktoria.
- The hosts have had 10 meetings against Czech opposition. They have won five of those games, drawn thrice and lost twice.
- The visitors have had 11 competitive meetings against Italian opposition. They have won three of those games, drawn three times and lost the other five.
- Fiorentina have scored 19 goals in the Conference League this season. Only Club Brugge (20) and PAOK (21) have scored more.
- Viktoria have kept clean sheets in seven of their last nine games across all competitions.
Fiorentina vs Viktoria Plzen Prediction
Fiorentina are on a run of back-to-back draws and have won just one of their last seven games across all competitions. They have, however, lost just one of their last seven home matches and will be looking forward to the midweek clash.
Viktoria are undefeated in their last four matches and have lost just once since last November. They have performed well on the road of late but could see defeat against significantly stronger opposition this Thursday.
Prediction: Fiorentina 1-0 Viktoria Plzen
Fiorentina vs Viktoria Plzen Betting Tips
Tip 1 - Result: Fiorentina to win
Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Under 2.5 goals (Five of the hosts' last six matches have produced fewer than 2.5 goals)
Tip 3 - Both teams to score: NO (Both sides have found the back of the net in just two of the visitors' last nine matches)
