The first legs of the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs take place this week as teams from across Europe are two games away from an exciting European tour. Below we preview the clash between Rapid Vienna and Fiorentina and show you where the value might be in this particular clash.
Austrian side Rapid Vienna reached this stage of the qualifying phase of the Europa Conference League last season but were unsuccessful in making it to the group stage. They were knocked out by Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz last time out and they will find it much tougher this time around as they come up against last term’s runners-up Fiorentina.
The Italian side were beaten 2-1 by West Ham United in Prague back in June as they missed out on their second major European honour. Fiorentina gave a good account of themselves throughout their run to the final. Their former striker, Arthur Cabral, was the joint-top scorer in the competition with seven goals but he moved on to Benfica earlier this month so his contributions will be sorely missed by Vincenzo Italiano’s side.
Rapid Vienna may feel that this will give them hope in their ambitions of reaching the group stage this time around. They certainly gave a good impression in their third qualifying round victory over Hungarian outfit Debreceni VST. After drawing the home leg 0-0, Die Grun-Weißen stepped up on away soil as they recorded a huge 5-0 victory to progress.
They are already four games into their Austrian Bundesliga campaign, having won two, drawn one and lost one. They sit third presently so they have played a decent amount of competitive football to warm them up for this gargantuan clash. As for Fiorentina, they kicked off their Serie A season at the weekend in style as they thrashed Genoa 4-1 away from home – and they looked very impressive.
The Viola will be fuelled by last year’s heartache against West Ham and will look to utilise that to lead them on another impressive journey in this competition.
Fiorentina and over 2.5 goals – 7/5
Over 2.5 goals – 8/11
Rapid Vienna vs Fiorentina Odds
Heading into this one, Fiorentina are rightly the overwhelming favourites at 3/5, while Rapid Vienna have the more enticing value of 4/1. If you feel that this first leg will be a draw like it was for the hosts in the previous round you can back the stalemate at 13/5.
