Fiorentina and West Ham United will look to become the 2022/23 Conference League champions when both sides meet at the competition’s final in Fortuna Arena in Prague.
After over a dozen games in Europe, both teams have reached the climax and are desperate to land their first European title in over five decades.
Winning this trophy isn’t just for the sake of winning for both sides, as a win here also offers them a route back to European football after they both finished outside of the European qualification positions in their domestic leagues.
Fiorentina, who finished eighth in the Serie A, qualified for this stage courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate win over Basel. After losing 2-1 at home in the first leg, the Violets defeated Basel 3-1 in extra time away from home to reach this round.
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Qualification for this final means they became the first team to reach the final of all four major UEFA competitions. Therefore, their goal now that they are in the final will be to improve their win rate in UEFA finals after lifting a European trophy just once in four prior attempts (W1, L3).
Meanwhile, West Ham United have endured a terrible domestic season, finishing in 14th place in the Premier League.
Yet, they have enjoyed their most successful European season in recent years, going unbeaten throughout this European campaign (W13, D1). David Moyes’ men defeated AZ Alkmaar 3-1 on aggregate to book their place in this round, so they should be confident of winning the most important game of this Conference League campaign.
But, they cannot afford to carry their league form into this game as they won just two of their final seven league fixtures (L5). If they want to win here and lift a second-ever European title, they must keep their European form and improve on their previous performances against Italian sides.
Meanwhile, West Ham have scored an average of 2.25 goals per UECL game this season, while Fiorentina have scored an average of 2.57 goals. So we are expecting over 2.5 goals in this game in Prague.
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