Lech vs Fiorentina Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg preview: Where to watch, kick-off time, predicted line-ups

Lech and Fiorentina meet in their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg on Thursday 13 April.

Where to watch Lech vs Fiorentina

Fans can find their local UEFA Europa Conference League broadcast partner(s) here.

What do you need to know?

Two of the Europa Conference League's most potent attacks go head-to-head as Fiorentina travel to Poland. The tie pits together four of the seven highest scorers in the competition (the Viola's Luka Jović and Arthur Cabral vs Lech pair Mikael Ishak and Michał Skóraś) but, as Sir Alex Ferguson once said: attack wins you games, defence wins you titles. On that front, Lech appear very well placed, having kept five successive clean sheets, against Villarreal, Bodø/Glimt and Djurgården.

Predicted line-ups

Lech: Bednarek; Pereira, Šatka, Milić, Rebocho; Kvekveskiri, Karlstroem; Sousa, Marchwiński, Skóraś; Ishak
Misses next match if booked: Ishak, Karlström, Rebocho, Szymczak

Fiorentina: Terracciano; Dodô, Martinez Quarta, Igor, Biraghi; Bonaventura, Amrabat, Mandragora; Ikoné, Cabral, Nico González
Misses next match if booked: Amrabat, Dodô, Milenković

Form guide

Lech
Form (all competitions, most recent first): WDWWDW
Where they stand: 3rd in Polish First Division

Fiorentina
Form (all competitions, most recent first): DWWWWW
Where they stand: 9th in Italian Serie A

Expert prediction

Piotr Koźmiński, match reporter
This is going to be the most important football event this week in Poland, as clubs from the country are rarely involved in European competition at such a late stage. It is also one of the most important games in Lech Poznań's history. Tickets have immediately sold out and the atmosphere will be electric. The general feeling is that Fiorentina are favourites, especially because they have been in very good form recently, but Lech have nothing to lose. Bartosz Bosacki, Lech's former captain, said in an interview for UEFA TV that the team have to aim for the final in Prague. The city is not far from Poznań geographically, but reaching the showpiece seems a huge task.

View from the camps

John van den Brom, Lech coach: "We are still not satisfied just because we have come this far. We want to win. Fiorentina are strong and this is a motivation for us. I have faith in my team and I'm sure our fans will help us: we win a lot at home. We will not change the way we play. It's a 50/50 match: we can win and we can lose, but our spirits are high."

Dariusz Dudka, Lech assistant coach: "I played against Fiorentina [with Lech in the 2015/16 Europa League] so I am happy to have the opportunity to return there. We have great fans behind us, who also travel with us away from home. If we want to go further, we need to get a good result in front of them in Poznan."

Bartosz Salamon, Lech defender: "At this stage, you just have to come out with as much enthusiasm as possible and enjoy where you are. It will be a nice journey for me – there are some guys at Fiorentina whom I've played with [during my 14 years in Italy] – so it will be an interesting game. I played in Serie A against this Fiorentina team, so I know what to expect. We can get a good result."

Vincenzo Italiano, Fiorentina coach: "This is an important month for us and it is crucial we go into it with the utmost confidence. We have recharged our batteries during the international break and are ready for a run of nine games in 30 days. We have to be ready, both physically and mentally."

What happens next?

The second leg takes place on 20 April, with the winners advancing to the semi-finals, where they will face the victors of the Basel vs Nice tie.

The Eden Arena (pictured above) in Prague, Czechia, will host this season's Europa Conference League final on 7 June 2023.