Bayern hope lightning can strike twice

After a stunning victory at Juventus in their last European away game, FC Bayern München will hope to hit the heights again when they return to Italy to take on ACF Fiorentina with a quarter-final place at stake.

• Facing a win-or-bust scenario, Bayern won 4-1 at Juventus in December to reach the last 16 but Louis van Gaal's men may need to emulate that display to get the better of a Fiorentina side with a 100% home record in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• This time round, Bayern do have a lead to defend having won 2-1 in Germany on 17 February thanks to Miroslav Klose's 89th-minute winner after Per Krøldrup (50) had cancelled out Arjen Robben's penalty opener in first-half added time.

Previous meetings
• Bayern prevailed 3-0 when the clubs met for the first time on 21 October 2008, Miroslav Klose (4), Bastian Schweinsteiger (25) and Zé Roberto (90) getting the goals.

• The teams drew 1-1 in the return at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on 5 November. Adrian Mutu gave the Viola an 11th-minute lead but they were denied a victory when Tim Borowski equalised after 78 minutes. Bayern finished as group winners while Fiorentina had to wait until Matchday 6 for their only victory of that campaign.

• The lineups for that meeting in Florence were:
Fiorentina: Frey, Zauri, Gamberini, Dainelli, Gobbi, Melo, Kuzmanović (Osvaldo 79), Montolivo, Santana (Almirón 63), Mutu, Gilardino.
Bayern: Rensing, Oddo, Lucio, Demichelis, Zé Roberto, Van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger (Kroos 79), Ribéry, Klose, Podolski (Ottl 89).

Match background
• While Bayern are seeking a second successive quarter-final appearance, Fiorentina have not reached the last eight of UEFA's elite club competition since 1970.

• Fiorentina had a 100% winning record at home in the group stage, beating Liverpool FC, Debreceni VSC and Olympique Lyonnais.

• Bayern took six points on their travels in the group stage – beating Maccabi Haifa FC and Juventus and losing at FC Girondins de Bordeaux – and make the trip to Italy having won seven and lost only three of their last 13 away fixtures in the UEFA Champions League.

• Van Gaal's side overwhelmed Juventus 4-1 on 8 December, prevailing through goals from Hans-Jörg Butt, Ivica Olić, Mario Gómez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk to secure second place in Group A and extend their unbeaten run on Italian soil to four matches.

• Bayern won the 2001 UEFA Champions League final at San Siro in Milan, beating Valencia CF on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

• In 1989/90 Fiorentina qualified for the UEFA Cup final by following a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen with a goalless draw in Italy to advance on away goals.

• Cesare Prandelli's men are hoping to avoid the fate of the last sides to enter the first knockout round on the back of five straight wins, namely FC Internazionale Milano FC and Sevilla FC in 2007/08. Both lost in the last 16.

• Bayern have taken a first-leg lead at home on 44 occasions in UEFA competition and have won the tie 36 times, most recently against CF Os Belenenses in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round (1-0 home, 2-0 away). The last of those eight aggregate defeats came in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals against Real Madrid CF (2-1 home, 0-2 away).

• Fiorentina have overturned a first-leg away defeat only twice in seven attempts, most recently in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup first round when they eliminated Club Atlético de Madrid on penalties after each side had won their home game 1-0.

Team ties
• Van Gaal got the better of Fiorentina with FC Barcelona in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League group stage. The Dutchman oversaw a 4-2 home victory against the Viola in September 1999, before a 3-3 draw in Florence two months later.

• Van Gaal has twice faced Italian opposition in the UEFA Champions League final. In 1995 his AFC Ajax team overcame AC Milan 1-0, before losing the following season's showpiece to Juventus after a penalty shoot-out.

• Van Gaal had previously guided Ajax to victory against Torino FC in the 1992 UEFA Cup final.

• Bayern goalkeeper Butt's goal against Juventus on Matchday 6 was his third against the Bianconeri in Europe. He converted a spot-kick for Hamburger SV in a 4-4 draw in 2000/01 and another for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a 3-1 win the following season.

• In 2006 Alberto Gilardino appeared as a substitute in Italy's 2-0 FIFA World Cup semi-final win against a Germany team including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Schweinsteiger.

• Gilardino tasted semi-final defeat when Milan lost out to a Barcelona side including Mark van Bommel in the 2005/06 UEFA Champion League semi-final.

• The following campaign, Gilardino was part of the Milan team that got the better of Bayern at the quarter-final stage despite two goals from Daniel Van Buyten at San Siro.

• Mutu featured as a second-half substitute in former club Juventus's 2-1 loss at Bayern in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. He was a late substitute in the return in Turin when Juve won by the same scoreline.

• Stefan Effenberg played for both Bayern – with whom he won the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League – and Fiorentina. Effenberg joined the Viola in 1992 from Bayern, returning to the Bavarian giants in 1998.

• Luca Toni spent two free-scoring seasons with Fiorentina from 2005-07 before moving on to Bayern. He joined AS Roma on loan in January.