Fiorentina Cukaricki prediction 2023-10-26

Fiorentina vs Cukaricki prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-10-25 19:00.
Fiorentina’s shock 2-0 reverse to Empoli on Monday was their first competitive loss since the first week of September (W4, D3), but head coach Vincenzo Italiano does not intend to dwell on it. He spoke afterwards about how his side must “archive this defeat as we do with the victories,” as he turns his attention to Fiorentina’s stuttering UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) campaign.

Last term’s UECL runners-up started this UECL campaign with a pair of entertaining 2-2 draws with Genk and Ferencváros, needing an injury-time equaliser to rescue a point against the latter. While UECL group-stage debutants Čukarički (L2) should present an easier challenge on paper, the defeat to Empoli will ensure no complacency as La Viola meet a club from modern-day Serbia for the first time since playing Red Star Belgrade (W1, D1) in the 1956/57 European Cup semi-finals.

It’s been a baptism of fire for Čukarički, who’ve scored just once during UECL losses to Ferencváros (3-1) and Genk (2-0), while they have won just twice across their last 12 competitive matches (D4, L6). The Highlanders are also facing fixture congestion as their first clash with an Italian side is the second in a sequence of seven games in just over three weeks that boss Igor Matić described as “really difficult and challenging”.

He also faces the challenge of improving their away form as the Belgrade outfit have won only one of their last six competitive fixtures on the road (D1, L4), and one of their last five in Europe (L4), although at least they netted in all five of those matches. They actually scored first in each of their last three UECL away games (including qualifiers), but could only convert one of those good starts into wins (L2).

Players to watch: Nicolás González has found the net in three of Fiorentina’s last five matches, on two occasions opening the scoring within the first 20 minutes. After registering Čukarički’s only UECL goal this season, Đorđe Ivanović followed up by scoring in a 3-0 victory against Spartak Subotica last month.

Hot stat: Exactly one Fiorentina player was booked in three of their last four games (W2, D1, L1).