Fiorentina v Liberec background
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Article summary
Fiorentina have scored eight goals in their last two games to accelerate to the top of UEFA Europa League Group J, with Slovan Liberec six points behind them in the section.
Article top media content
Article body
The top and bottom sides in UEFA Europa League Group J come together again on matchday four, with six points separating Fiorentina and Slovan Liberec.
Previous meetings
• Fiorentina won 3-1 in the Czech Republic when the teams met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three.
• Fiorentina are unbeaten in six matches against Czech opponents (W4 D2 – W3 in Italy).
• Liberec's record in five encounters with Italian opposition is W2 D1 L2 (W1 L1 in Italy).
Form guide
• Fiorentina are unbeaten in three European home games (W2 D1).
• Liberec are unbeaten on their travels after three European away assignments this season (W2 D1). They also scored in the first minute of their first two Group J fixtures; Jan Sýkora struck less than 11 seconds into their opener at Qarabağ – a competition record – and Nikolai Komlinchenko took 41 seconds to break through against PAOK on matchday two.
• Fiorentina have a 100% qualification success rate in four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage forays.
• Liberec have qualified in one of their three previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group campaigns.
Links and trivia
• The journey from Liberec to Florence is a little shy of 850km.
• Fiorentina's Nikola Kalinić and Khouma Babacar are among seven players topping the group stage scorers chart with seven goals along with Giuliano (Zenit), Joãozinho (Krasnodar), Leon Bailey (Genk), Guillaume Hoarau (Young Boys) and Aleksandar Kokorin (Zenit).
• Milan Baroš has bagged 17 UEFA club competition goals, two more than all of his Liberec team-mates combined.
• Liberec's Serbian forward Miroslav Marković turns 27 the day after the match.
• Fiorentina midfielder Borja Valero can make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance on matchday four.
The coaches
• A European champion as a player with Juventus (1996) and Dortmund (1997), former Portugal midfielder Paulo Sousa joined Fiorentina in June 2015 fresh from landing the 2013/14 Israeli crown with Maccabi Tel-Aviv and the 2014/15 Swiss championship with Basel.
• Jindřich Trpišovský assumed control at Liberec in June 2015. The coach models himself on Jürgen Klopp. Once a youth coach at Sparta Praha, he previously led second-division Viktoria Žižkov, impressing despite the club's financial constraints.