Fiorentina prepare for PSV test

• The game could be of added significance looking ahead to UEFA EURO 2008™. Italy and the Netherlands meet in their opening Group C fixture in Berne. Fiorentina's Alessandro Gamberini, Manuel Pasqual and Riccardo Montolivo are in the running for places in the Italy squad while Ibrahim Afellay and Danny Koevermans will be hoping to represent the Netherlands on 9 June.

• On the same day, France will meet Romania in a game which could see Fiorentina team-mates Sébastien Frey and Adrian Mutu on opposite sides. Italy face Romania on 13 June and France on 17 June, while the Netherlands play France and then Romania.

• That latter match will be a reprise of two previous games between the Netherlands and Romania in qualifying. The teams drew 0-0 in the Netherlands, before Romania prevailed 1-0 in Constanta to seize top spot in Group G. Fiorentina's Mutu played in both of those games, while PSV's Koevermans came on late on in the second fixture having been an unused substitute in the first match.

• France and Italy also met twice in qualifying, with Frey watching the match in Milan on 8 September 2007 from the bench. No members of the Fiorentina squad were in Roberto Donadoni's side.

• Fiorentina have played 105 games in UEFA club competition but had never met Dutch opponents until this season, when they were drawn against FC Groningen in the first round of the UEFA Cup. Both legs ended in 1-1 draws with Fiorentina winning a penalty shoot-out 4-3 on home soil to progress.

• PSV, who are playing in their 250th game in UEFA club competition at the Artemio Franchi Stadium, have come up against Italian opponents on 16 occasions, winning six games, drawing two and losing eight. They are yet to triumph in Italy, their eight previous visits producing two draws and six defeats.

• PSV met Fiorentina's Serie A rivals FC Internazionale Milano in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage, losing 2-0 at San Siro and 1-0 at home.

• Adrian Mutu and Christian Vieri have been Fiorentina's most dangerous players so far, scoring three apiece in the UEFA Cup this season.

• Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli has never come up against Dutch opponents. The former midfielder played for US Cremonese, Atalanta BC and Juventus before coaching Atalanta, US Lecce, Hellas-Verona FC, Venezia FC, Parma FC, AS Roma and now Fiorentina.

• Sef Vergoossen will coach PSV until the end of the season, at which point Hamburger SV boss Huub Stevens will take charge. The 60-year-old previously coached VVV Venlo, MVV Maastricht, Roda JC, KRC Genk, Al-Jazeera of the United Arab Emirates and Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight.

• While at Genk, he played his only previous fixtures against Italian opposition as his side met Fabio Capello's AS Roma in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League first group stage. His side lost 1-0 in Belgium but drew 0-0 in Rome. Genk played the last 80 minutes of the former tie with ten men following goalkeeper Jan Moons' dismissal.

• Fiorentina have yet to lose at home in the UEFA Cup this season, earning four wins and a draw – with that lone tie coming against PSV's Eredivisie rivals Groningen. Their 2-0 defeat at Everton FC in the Round of 16 second leg was the first UEFA Cup game this season in which they failed to score in normal time.

• PSV have won three of their five away games in Europe this season, including both of their away ties since they moved into the UEFA Cup in the Round of 32.

• The number eight could be a lucky one for PSV. Their two previous major European titles both came in years ending in eight. They won the European Champion Clubs' Cup in the 1987/88 season having earned their first major trophy in the 1977/78 UEFA Cup.

• PSV have not been prolific scorers in Europe this season, with just eight goals spread over ten UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup ties. Serbian Danko Lazović has been the most prolific striker with three goals, with two-goal Jefferson Farfán the only other PSV player to have registered more than once.

• Fiorentina's Ricardo Montolivo and Tomáš Ujfaluši are both within a booking of a one-match ban.

• PSV's Farfán, Lazović and Dirk Marcellis are also one card away from a suspension.

• Fiorentina finished second in UEFA Cup Group C, then beat Rosenborg BK and Everton to reach the quarter-finals. PSV finished third in their UEFA Champions League group and parachuted into the UEFA Cup, where they beat Helsingborgs IF and Tottenham Hotspur FC to make it to the last eight.

• The second leg will take place in Madrid on 10 April. The winners of the tie will face either Bayer 04 Leverkusen or FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the semi-finals, playing the first leg away on 24 April and the home game on 1 May.

• The winners of that tie will be the nominal home team in the UEFA Cup final at the City of Manchester Stadium on 14 May.