Europa Conference League Preview: Third Time Lucky for Fiorentina?

Losing finalists over the past two seasons, Fiorentina will be hoping the upcoming Europa Conference League campaign proves a case of third time lucky.

The only Italian side in the competition, La Viola have been dealt a relatively benign draw, which will take them to Switzerland, Cyprus and Portugal to face St. Gallen, APOEL Nicosia and Vitoria Guimaraes respectively.

Meanwhile, Welsh side The New Saints will visit the Artemio Franchi, along with Cypriot outfit Pafos and Austria’s LASK. 

Fiorentina’s progress to the league stage of the Europa Conference League has been far from straightforward, with La Viola needing penalties to progress past Hungarian side Puskas Akademia on penalties in the play-off round.

Things haven’t gone much better in Serie A, where the Tuscans are unbeaten after three games but remain winless.New manager Raffaele Palladino has found it difficult since arriving in Florence from Monza and it remains to be seen whether European football can electrify La Viola‘s campaign as it did over the past two seasons.

The omens are good, for the new revamped format – more on which later – means Fiorentina should be expected to reach the Round of 16, particularly after the cookie crumbled their way in the draw. At the same time, trips to Nicosia to face APOEL and the home tie against LASK can’t be underestimated.

How does the Europa Conference League new format work?

Like the Champions League and the Europa League, the Europa Conference League has also undergone a major revamp this season, doing away with group stages and replacing them with a league system instead.

Divided across six pots based on their country’s UEFA coefficient rankings, each of the 36 teams in the competition will play six games, three at home and three away.

The top eight teams will go through to the Round of 16, while the teams ranked from ninth to 24th will take part in a play-off round to determine the remaining eight teams featuring in the knock-out stage.

Significantly, the new format does not allow teams to transfer from the Europa League to the Conference League knockout stage and the Conference League winners will automatically qualify for next season’s Europa League league stage, unless they secure a Champions League berth through their league performances.

Here, Destination Calcio takes you through all you need to know about Fiorentina’s opponents. 

Fiorentina’s Europa Conference League fixtures

The New Saints (h) – October 3, 8pm – St.Gallen (a) – October 24, 5:45pm – APOEL Nicosia (a) – November 7, 8pm – Pafos (h) – November 28, 8pm – LASK (h) – December 12, 5:45pm – Vitoria Guimaraes (a) – December 19, 8pm

All kick-off times are in GMT.

The New Saints

After beating Lithuanian side Panevėžys 3-0 on aggregate in the play-offs in August, the New Saints are the first club playing in the Welsh league to qualify for the group or league stage of a major European competition.

The New Saints, who play their home fixtures at Park Hall in Oswestry, just over the border with England, won the Cymru Premier for the 16th time last season – a Welsh record and their third consecutive league title.

Expect the Welsh outfit to bring plenty of enthusiasm to the Europa Conference League, but they should be no match for Fiorentina.

St. Gallen

La Viola’s first away fixture of the league phase takes them to Switzerland to face St. Gallen, who finished fifth in the Swiss Super League last season.

The Espen had to take the panoramic route to reach the Europa Conference League league stage this term, dispatching FC Tobol of Kazakhstan 5-1 on aggregate in the second qualifying round and then beating Poland’s Slask Wroclaw 4-3 on aggregate in the third qualifying round.

Their reward was a play-off tie with Trabzonspor, who they overcame 5-4 on penalties after drawing 1-1 on aggregate. 

Atalanta midfielder and former Pisa loanee Moustapha Cisse is currently on loan at St. Gallen, and keep an eye out for Willem Geubbels, who has already scored five goals in 12 appearances in all competitions this season after netting eight last term. 

APOEL Nicosia

The reigning Cypriot champions, APOEL ended a five-year wait for a league title last season as they clinched a record 29th championship.

APOEL’s road to the Europa Conference League league stage has been tortuous to say the least. 

Having beaten Moldavia’s Petrocub Hincesti 2-1 on aggregate in the second qualifying round in the Champions League, they lost 2-0 on aggregate against Slovan Bratislava in the following stage and found themselves in the Europa League play-off round, where they lost to Latvian side RFS on penalties.

Brazilian winger Marquinhos scored 10 goals and set up seven in 35 games in all competitions last term and remains APOEL’s main attacking threat, while Morocco international Youssef El Arabi is still to hit the ground running after joining from Olympiacos.  

Pafos

Fiorentina’s second Cypriot opponents, like The New Saints Pafos are debutants at this level in a major European competition.

They’re also by some distance the youngest club in the competition, having been created only 10 years ago following the merger of AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia.

Pafos finished fourth in the Cypriot first division last term and reached the Europa Conference League league stage after beating Romanian side Cluj 3-1 on aggregate. 

The Cypriots boast a sizeable South American contingent in their ranks, with seven Brazilians and two Argentines.

LASK

LASK qualified for the Europa League after finishing third in the Austrian Bundesliga last season, but their sojourn in European football’s second tier competition was short-lived as they lost 2-1 to Steaua Bucharest in the play-offs.

As a result, the Black and Whites find themselves in the Europa Conference League for the first time since they reached the Round of 16 in 2022.

Former Bayern Munich star Jerome Boateng remains LASK most high-profile player at the tender age of 36, while Marin Ljubičić is the Austrian side’s biggest goal threat. The Croatian has scored 31 goals in all competitions over the last two seasons since joining from Hajduk Split.

Vitoria Guimaraes

The Portuguese arrive in the Europa Conference League after consecutive 5-0 aggregate wins over Floriana and FC Zurich in the second and third qualifying round respectively.

Fifth in the Primeira Liga last season, The Conquerors have never made it out of their groups in a European competition since the format was first introduced two decades ago.

A lot is expected of former Venezuela U-21 international Jesus Ramirez, who joined Vitoria this summer after scoring 17 goals in 33 league games for CD Nacional in the Portuguese second tier last season.