Fiorentina focus: What Hearts are up against in European clash: form, manager, players and pedigree

Hearts face Fiorentina in the third match of their Europa Conference League campaign at Tynecastle on Thursday. Here is the lowdown on a Serie A side struggling for form as they head to Edinburgh.

Form

After finishing seventh in Serie A last term, Fiorentina have had a disappointing start to the current campaign, with just three wins from 12 matches in all competitions. They have taken just one point from their two Conference League matches so far, while they are 11th in the 20-team Serie A. They have struggled to score all season, particularly away from home, with just one goal in six matches on the road in all competitions.

Manager

Vincenzo Italiano, a 44-year-old born in Germany to Italian parents, took charge of Fiorentina at the start of last season. Picture: Emilio Andreoli/Getty

Vincenzo Italiano, a 44-year-old born in Germany to Italian parents, took charge of Fiorentina at the start of last season. As a player, he spent the majority of his career with Verona over two spells, while he also represented Genoa, Padova and Perugia. Italiano began his coaching career in the Italian non-league ranks after retiring in 2014 and worked his way up to Trapani, whom he led from Serie C to Serie B in 2018-19. This earned him the Spezia job and he won promotion to Serie A in his first season and then kept them in the top flight the following year, prompting Fiorentina to hire him a little over a year ago. He presided over a seventh-place finish in his first season at La Viola but is currently negotiating a sticky patch.

Players

Hearts can take some encouragement from the fact no Fiorentina player has scored more than one goal across all competitions this season. Strikers Artur Cabral and Luka Jovic are both out of form and have found themselves on the bench recently, while key wide players Nico Gonzalez and Riccardo Sottil have been struggling with injuries. Jonathan Ikone will not play in Edinburgh after being sent off against Istanbul in the previous match. Nikola Milenkovic and Igor are a physically imposing central defensive pairing. Morocco internationalist Sofyan Amrabat provides bite in midfield and has been one of La Viola's more impressive players this term.

European pedigree

Overall, Fiorentina have been fairly regularly participants in Europe although - like Hearts - this is the first time they have competed in continental competition since the 2016-17 season, when they reached the last 32 of the Europa League. Their best European achievement came when they won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1960/61 after beating Rangers in the final, while they were runners-up the following year. Their best run in the European Cup was in 1956-57 when they lost to Real Madrid in the final, while they also lost the 1990 UEFA Cup final to Italian rivals Juventus over two legs. More recently, they reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup in 2008 before going out to Rangers and then made it to the last four of the Europa League in 2015, when they lost to Sevilla.