Sevilla may be the defending champions, but Fiorentina surely have what it takes to reach the Europa League final at their expense.
Fiorentina will face Spanish club Sevilla in the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday night in Seville, in what should be a great encounter between two attack-minded teams.
Vincenzo Montella’s side have redeemed themselves after being eliminated by Juventus in the Round of 16 last season by reaching the final four for the first time since 2007-08.
The Gigliati should fancy their chances against the reigning champions because they will get the chance to play the style of football they want, and they have demonstrated that it has worked by defeating some strong teams on the way to the semi-finals.
Sevilla are known for their attacking style of play and they have excellent attacking weapons such as wingers Vitolo and Jose Antonio Reyes as well as strikers Carlos Bacca and Kevin Gameiro. Unai Emery’s side have two fine midfielders in Stephane Mbia and Ever Banega who control the play in the middle of the park.
This can play to the advantage of Fiorentina. They know that the Spanish side won’t be pragmatic like a stereotypical Italian outfit so the Viola should get more space to play their short-passing game.
Another major point is that Montella’s side have a rather Spanish flavour to them. There are Spaniards such as Joaquin, Marcos Alonso and Borja Valero in the team; not only that, but Gonzalo Rodriguez and midfielder Mati Fernandez played for Villarreal in the Spanish Primera Division.
Fiorentina’s possession-based football is also more Spanish than Italian too, with Montella implementing his version of tiki-taka or tikitalia. Out of the four semi-finalists, the Gigliati have the highest passing rate having completed 88 per cent of their passes.
Montella’s persistence with his football philosophy has paid off this season and the Viola have eliminated some strong sides in the knockout stage after progressing through a somewhat easy group.
Fiorentina won 3-1 on aggregate against English side Tottenham Hotspur in the Round of 32, knocked-out Serie A rivals Roma by defeating them 4-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16 and then Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev were eliminated 3-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.
Throughout their campaign, the Gigliati have also had a good spread of goalscorers too. Juan Vargas has scored three goals in nine games while Mario Gomez, Josip Ilicic and Jose Basanta are three out of six Viola players that have two goals each.
If Fiorentina needed a confidence booster, Sevilla have never defeated an Italian side in a European competition. The last time the Rojiblancos faced an Italian team, they lost 3-1 to AC Milan in the 2007 UEFA Super Cup.
Seven years have gone by since Scottish giants Rangers eliminated the Viola in the old UEFA Cup but there are also other reasons to motivate Fiorentina.
Italian clubs have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League nine times and the Spaniards have won eight times. Fiorentina have not won the competition but a Roberto Baggio-inspired side did reach the 1990 final, only to lose 3-1 on aggregate to Dino Zoff’s Juventus.
The Viola have the qualities to knock Sevilla out of the Europa League. Their campaign this season shows that they are not a pushover and the failures of previous campaigns should serve as inspiration.
