Having dispatched Polissya 6-2 on aggregate yesterday and not given anyone anything to worry about at all in that second leg, Fiorentina cruised into the Conference League draw today as the top overall seed by coefficient. Now that the dust’s settled, let’s have a look at the league phase, and, for the record, my strongly-held editorial conviction is that we still deserve regular groups.
As a reminder, the top 8 teams after league play advance directly to the Round of 16. Teams ranked 9-24 advance to a playoff
round, with 9-16 as seeded teams and 17-24 as unseeded teams. Also worth mentioning is that while we have the draw, the dates haven’t been set yet but will be announced on 31 August. Because some cities (e.g. London, Madrid, Athens) have multiple teams in Europe, the plan is to ensure no city hosts two European games the same week. Anyways, here’s the draw.
at Rapid Vienna
vs Dynamo Kyiv
at Mainz
vs AEK
vs Sigma Olomouc
at Lausanne
All things considered, it’s not a bad draw. It wasn’t kind by the numbers—of the 6 opponents, 4 had the 2nd-highest UEFA coefficient in their pot—but none of these teams should scare Fiorentina too much. Dynamo Kyiv and Mainz are probably the next best sides, but all these outfits have played in Europe quite a bit and experienced some success. Still, the Viola should be able to advance without too much difficulty.
They’ve also dodged any long trips, which always helps; Mainz is geographically the farthest at about 975 km/605 mi, although Lausanne might be harder to reach as there’s no direct flight, although the club may charter a plane to avoid the 7 hour bus ride.
Fiorentina’s never faced Mainz, Sigma Olomouc, or Lausanne in a competitive fixture, so we’ll get some brand new half-and-half scarves. Rapid Vienna was the Conference League playoff opponent in 2023-2024 (Fiorentina won 2-1 on aggregate), and they also played in the Mitropa Cup and the Cup Winner’s Cup back in the 1960s. The Viola are W5 L1 in 6 previous meetings.
Fiorentina’s played Dynamo Kyiv 6 times, most recently in the 2014-2015 Europa League quarterfinals, taking a 3-1 aggregate win. They also faced off in the UEFA Cup in 1989-1990 and the European Cup in 1969-1970, with the good guys holding an undefeated record of W3 D3. The only fixture against AEK was back in the group stage of the 2007-2008 UEFA Cup, which ended 1-1.
