Liberec v Fiorentina background

Liberec have scored in the first minute of both of their Group J games to date, but are struggling to take advantage of those early breakthroughs as they welcome Fiorentina on matchday three.

Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Liberec's record in four encounters with Italian teams is W2 D1 L1 (W1 D1 at home).

• Fiorentina are unbeaten in five matches against Czech opponents (W3 D2 – D2 in Czech Republic itself).

Form guide
• Liberec have found the net in the opening minute of both of their group fixtures this term, but have just one point so far. Jan Sýkora struck less than 11 seconds into their opener at Qarabağ – a competition record – and Nikolai Komlinchenko took 41 seconds to break through against PAOK on matchday two.

• Liberec have qualified in one of their three previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group campaigns.

• Fiorentina and PAOK top Group J with four points from two outings.

• Fiorentina have a 100% qualification success rate in four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage forays.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Florence to Liberec is a little shy of 850km.

• Milan Baroš has bagged 17 UEFA club competition goals, three more than all of his Liberec team-mates combined.

The coaches
• Jindřich Trpišovský assumed control at Liberec in June 2015. The coach models himself on Jürgen Klopp. Once a youth coach at Sparta Praha, he previously led second-division Viktoria Žižkov, impressing despite the club's financial constraints.

• A European champion as a player with Juventus (1996) and Dortmund (1997), former Portugal midfielder Paulo Sousa joined Fiorentina in June 2015 fresh from landing the 2013/14 Israeli crown with Maccabi Tel-Aviv and the 2014/15 Swiss championship with Basel.