Basel vs Fiorentina facts

With a 2-1 lead to protect at St. Jakob-Park, Basel stand on the threshold of becoming the first Swiss side to reach the final of a major European club competition. However, they will be wary of a Fiorentina side who, in their quest to succeed Roma as UEFA Europa Conference League winners, have won all of their three previous away games in the knockout phase, scoring four goals in each, and also boast an impressive record in Switzerland.

Basel were denied top spot in Group H during the autumn on head-to-head record, by Slovan Bratislava, but, with coach Alexander Frei subsequently replaced by technical director Heiko Vogel, they went on to eliminate the Slovakian champions 4-1 on penalties in the round of 16 after two 2-2 draws following a knockout play-off success against Turkish title holders Trabzonspor (0-1 a, 2-0 h). Their run of success continued in the quarter-finals as they eliminated Nice, a 2-1 victory in France – courtesy of Jean-Kévin Augustin's late equaliser and Kasim Nuhu's extra-time winner – following another 2-2 draw at home.

Fiorentina were edged out of top spot in Group A by İstanbul Başakşehir on head-to-head goal difference, with both teams finding the net 14 times. The Viola added seven more goals in their knockout play-off as they eased past Braga (4-0 a, 3-2 h), another five against Sivasspor in the round of 16 (1-0 h, 4-1 a) and six more in the quarter-finals against Lech Poznań (4-1 a, 2-3 h) to set a new record total for one season in the competition proper, surpassing the previous high of 28 managed by both of last season's finalists, Roma and Feyenoord.

Previous meetings

Arthur Cabral gave Fiorentina the lead against his former club in the first leg at the Stadio Artemi Franchi, heading the Viola in front after 25 minutes with his chart-topping seventh goal of this season's UEFA Europa Conference League, but Basel equalised with a superb solo effort from Andy Diouf on 71 minutes before snatching a shock 2-1 win in added time as Zeki Amdouni rifled in his sixth goal of the 2022/23 competition, all in the knockout phase.

The clubs' only UEFA encounters prior to this season came in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League group stage. Urs Fischer's Basel were also 2-1 winners in Florence on Matchday 1, likewise coming from behind to snatch victory with Mohamed Elneny's 79th-minute winner after Birkir Bjarnason (71) had equalised Nikola Kalinic's fourth-minute strike. It was Elneny again who scored Basel's second goal (74) to earn a 2-2 draw in the home return after a Federico Bernardeschi double had given Paulo Sousa's Fiorentina a 2-0 lead that was halved just before the interval by Marek Suchý. Sousa had left Basel for Fiorentina the previous summer.

Both teams would go through to the knockout phase, Basel as group winners, Fiorentina as runners-up. The Swiss side, who hosted the final at St. Jakob-Park that season, reached the round of 16, where they fell to eventual winners Sevilla, while the Viola were defeated in the round of 32 by Tottenham Hotspur.

This tie is Basel's first experience of Italian opposition since those matches with Fiorentina seven seasons ago. Their all-time record against Italian clubs is W5 D2 L5, all but three of those 12 matches having been group stage encounters. The only other knockout tie was a 2004/05 UEFA Champions League qualifier against Inter Milan that they lost 5-2 on aggregate (1-1 h, 1-4 a). Basel have lost just one of their previous five home games against Italian visitors (W2 D2) – 2-3 against Roma in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage. Their last win was against the same opponents on Matchday 1 of the previous season's UEFA Europa League (2-0).

Fiorentina's 11 previous matches against Swiss clubs have yielded five wins, two draws and four defeats. They are nevertheless unbeaten in Switzerland (W3 D2), scoring at least twice on all five visits, 13 goals in total. In two-legged ties against Swiss clubs their record is W3 L1, the last of those successes on away goals against Grasshoppers in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League qualifying play-offs (2-1 a, 0-1 h).

Form guide

Basel

Runners-up in the 2021/22 Swiss Super League, 12 points behind champions FC Zürich, Basel also had a lengthy run in the UEFA Europa Conference League last season, progressing from the second qualifying round to the round of 16, where, having topped their group to bypass the knockout play-offs, they fell to Marseille (1-2 a, 1-2 h).

This season, newly led by former Switzerland striker Frei, Basel booked a return ticket to the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage by successfully coming through three qualifying ties for the second successive campaign, Crusaders, Brøndby – on penalties – and CSKA-Sofia all being defeated as the Swiss side secured an 18th European group campaign. They made it through their section for the 12th time – and fourth in a row – by taking six points off Pyunik (3-1 h, 2-1 a), four off Žalgiris Vilnius (1-0 a, 2-2 h) and one off Slovan (0-2 h, 3-3 a) to finish second. Then came the knockout phase wins against Trabzonspor, Slovan and Nice under new boss Vogel that have earned the club just a second appearance in a major European semi-final.

Basel's only previous last-four tie in Europe came ten years ago when, having eliminated Tottenham on penalties in the UEFA Europa League to become Switzerland's first European semi-finalists for 35 years, they fell to another London club. Murat Yakin's side lost both legs against eventual winners Chelsea (1-2 h, 1-3 a) to complete a 20-match European campaign that had begun with current coach Vogel at the helm.

Basel's Matchday 3 defeat by Slovan (0-2) was one of only three in their last 23 European matches at St. Jakob-Park (W17 D3), though they have drawn the last two. Their home record in all rounds of the UEFA Europa Conference League is now W11 D3 L2, with one win, two draws and one defeat – against Marseille last season – in the competition's knockout phase.

Basel have won 14 of the 15 previous UEFA ties in which they were triumphant away in the first leg, the most recent in last season's UEFA Europa Conference League third qualifying round against Újpest (2-1 a, 4-0 h). That was only the second time they had won the first away leg with a 2-1 scoreline, the previous instance also heralding a big second-leg home win – 6-0 against Sarajevo in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round. The Swiss club's sole aggregate defeat after winning the first leg on the road came on away goals against Hamburg in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round (1-0 a, 2-3 h).

Fiorentina

Fiorentina claimed seventh place in Serie A last season under new head coach Vincenzo Italiano to make a first appearance in Europe since 2016/17. When they last returned to UEFA competition after an equally lengthy break, in 2007/08, they also reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

UEFA Europa League knockout phase participants four seasons running from 2013/14 to 2016/17, Fiorentina returned to the continental stage last summer in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying play-offs, edging past Twente to reach the group stage, where they recovered from a poor start to win their last four matches, including back-to-back wins against Hearts (3-0 a, 5-1 h), and qualify as runners-up. Braga, Sivasspor and – after an edgy second leg in Florence – Lech were then overcome in their first three knockout ties as the Viola kept alive their bid to keep the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy in Italy.

This is Fiorentina's eighth appearance in a major UEFA semi-final. They won the first four of the previous seven ties but have lost the last three, most recently going down to Sevilla in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League (0-3 a, 0-2 h). They had not scored in five successive semi-final matches, or four in a row at home, until Cabral's opener against Basel, their most recent aggregate success having come on the away goals rule against Werder Bremen in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup (1-1 a, 0-0 h), the final of which they lost to Juventus (1-3 a, 0-0 h).

A 0-3 defeat at İstanbul Başakşehir is Fiorentina's only loss in their last 11 European fixtures outside Italy (W8 D2). They have recovered impressively from that Matchday 2 reverse, scoring 18 goals in their last five away games in this competition, all victories, including four in each of the three previous knockout round encounters.

This is only the fourth time Fiorentina have ever lost the first home leg of a UEFA competition tie. They were eliminated on all three previous occasions, in each case in the UEFA Cup – against Schalke in the 1977/78 first round (0-3 forfeit h, 1-2 a), LOSC Lille in the 2001/02 third round (0-1 h, 0-2 a) and Ajax in the 2008/09 round of 32 (0-1 h, 1-1 a).

Links and trivia 

Fiorentina's Brazilian striker Cabral joined from Basel in January last year. During his two-and-a-half-years with the Swiss club he scored 65 goals in 106 matches and was the Super League's joint top scorer with 18 – as well as its player of the year – in 2020/21.

Basel have an Italian player, Riccardo Calafiori, in their ranks. The left-back, a former Italy youth and Under-21 international, played in Serie A for Roma (2020–22) and Genoa (2022 loan) before joining the Swiss side last summer.

Basel's Andi Zeqiri (2016/17) and Kaly Sène (2019/20) both spent time in the Juventus youth system.

Darian Males is on loan at Basel from Inter Milan. He appeared in one Coppa Italia game with Genoa in 2021 while on loan from the Nerazzurri.

Fiorentina's Jonathan Ikoné was a team-mate of Basel's Augustin at Paris Saint-Germain in 2016/17.

Nuhu is a Ghana national team colleague of Fiorentina's Alfred Duncan.

Fiorentina are the highest scorers in this season's UEFA Europa Conference League, group stage to final, their 33 goals in 13 matches seven more than West Ham.

Cabral is now the UEFA Europa Conference League's top scorer with seven goals, six of them in the knockout phase. He has one more than club colleague Luka Jović, Basel's Amdouni, West Ham's Michail Antonio and Hugo Cuypers of eliminated Gent. Another Viola player, Christian Kouamé, also still leads the way in the assists charts with five – all registered during the group stage.

This is Basel's 34th match in all rounds of the UEFA Europa Conference League – a competition record. It is also the Swiss club's 20th European match this season, equalling their own club record of 2012/13 as well as Lech Poznań's mark in this campaign.

Basel are one of two clubs, along with AZ Alkmaar, who were eliminated in last season's UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16 but have made it through to the semi-finals this term. None of the 2021/22 semi-finalists are involved again this season.

While Basel are the only Swiss side left in Europe, Fiorentina are one of five Italian clubs competing in the semi-finals across the three competitions – along with AC Milan and Inter in the UEFA Champions League, and Juventus and Roma in the UEFA Europa League.

Basel are the only one of the four UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finalists to have never reached a major UEFA final.

The clubs experienced contrasting fortunes in domestic football at the weekend, Fiorentina winning 2-0 at home to Udinese in Serie A while Basel fell to their heaviest defeat of the Swiss Super League season, going down 6-1 at St Gallen.

The winners of this tie will face West Ham or AZ in the final in Prague on 7 June.

Penalty shoot-outs

Fiorentina's record in six UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W3 L3:
4-5 v Sachsenring Zwickau, 1975/76 European Cup Winners' Cup second round
1-3 v Boavista, 1986/87 UEFA Cup first round
3-1 v Atlético de Madrid, 1989/90 UEFA Cup first round
4-3 v Groningen, 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round
4-2 v Everton, 2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 16
2-4 v Rangers, 2007/08 UEFA Cup semi-final

Basel's record in four UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W4 L0:
4-1 v Tottenham Hotspur, 2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-final
4-3 v Hammarby, 2021/22 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying play-off
3-1 v Brøndby, 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League third qualifying round
4-1 v Slovan Bratislava, 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16