Rakow Czestochowa vs Fiorentina Prediction: Viola’s love affair with Conference League not slowing down

Fiorentina have a one-goal lead to protect as they head to Poland to take on Rakow Czestochowa in the second leg of their Conference League round of 16 tie on Thursday. The Viola did it the hard way during last week's first leg in Florence, coming from behind to win 2-1, but they will be hopeful of completing the job at Zaglebie Sports Park as they bid to make it through to the quarter-finals of the Conference League for the fourth season in a row.

Rakow are competing in the knockout stages of a European competition for the first time and they will not make things easy for Fiorentina, given they were a perfect three wins from three on home soil during the league phase. Read on for my Rakow Czestochowa vs Fiorentina predictions.

Team News

The Polish side have a near fully fit squad to choose from for this game, with ACL victim Vladyslav Kocherhin their only confirmed absentee.

Jonatan Braut Brunes is set to lead the line for Rakow, with the cousin of Erling Haaland having scored 21 times across all competitions this season.

Fiorentina will be boosted by the availability of centre-back Marin Pongracic, who missed last week's first leg through suspension, although Luca Lezzerini and Manor Solomon remain sidelined due to injury.

Head coach Paolo Vanoli has tended to rotate in Europe given his side are also battling for Serie A survival, with the likes of Jack Harrison, Cher Ndour and Jacopo Fazzini hoping to start after being used from the bench during Monday's league win at Cremonese.

Rakow Czestochowa vs Fiorentina Odds

There is not much separating the two sides in the betting, with Rakow priced at 6/4 to win on the night and Fiorentina 13/8. The draw is available at 12/5.

In terms of qualification, with their one-goal advantage from the first leg, Fiorentina are the heavy 1/3 favourites to win the tie, with Rakow 9/4 to extend their European journey further.

Fiorentina to win (in 90 mins) @ 13/8

Rakow were a perfect three wins from three at home during the league phase, beating Universitatea Craiova, Rapid Wien and Zrinjski Mostar, but a visit from Conference League specialists Fiorentina will mark a huge step up for Lukasz Tomczyk's side.

La Viola may be struggling in Serie A, but they are a dab hand when it comes to this competition, reaching two finals and a semi-final across the last three seasons.

This is the second round in a row Fiorentina have faced Polish opposition and, although they struggled in the home leg of their knockout phase play-off tie with Jagiellonia Białystok, they won the away fixture 3-0.

Jagiellonia sit three places above Rakow in the Ekstraklasa standings to further underline the task awaiting Thursday's hosts, who will have also noted Fiorentina's emphatic 4-1 success at Cremonese in Serie A on Monday night.

Take the Italian side to rubber stamp their place in the quarter-finals by claiming a victory in Czestochowa.

Albert Gudmundsson to score last @ 13/2

Albert Gudmundsson came off the bench to score Fiorentina's winner from the penalty spot during last week's first leg and he followed up by putting the gloss on his side's victory over Cremonese.

The Iceland international now has nine goals for the season, but he may be handed a watching brief to start with on Thursday, as he is one of the players who could be rotated to the bench by Vanoli.

That is unlikely to stop Gudmundsson from having a major say and given his late heroics over the past seven days, he could be worth backing to score the final goal of the tie.

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