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

Fiorentina and Basel meet in their UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final first leg on Thursday 11 May.

Where to watch Fiorentina vs Basel

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

What do you need to know?

In Luka Jović and Arthur Cabral, Fiorentina boast the two top scorers left in this season's Europa Conference League (six each), and Vincenzo Italiano's side are by far the most prolific team in the tournament so far with 32 goals. They have been even more impressive away than at home – they scored 18 in the course of winning their last five on the road – but flirted with disaster at home against Lech Poznań in the quarter-final decider, going 3-0 down before striking twice late on to qualify.

Basel, meanwhile, have been defying the odds to make it this far, their quarter-final decider against Nice something of a smash-and-grab raid as a late equaliser and an extra-time winner took them to the last four. Michael Lang may remind his team-mates that the Swiss side have had the better of Fiorentina before; the defender featured in the Basel side that won 2-1 in Florence in the 2015/16 group stage then drew 2-2 in the return game.

Predicted line-ups

Fiorentina: Terracciano; Dodô, Quarta, Igor, Biraghi; Barak, Amrabat, Mandragora; González, Cabral, Ikoné
Suspended: Milenković

Basel: Hitz; Lang, Nuhu, Pelmard; Ndoye, Diouf, Xhaka, Burger, Millar; Amdouni, Zeqiri

Form guide

Fiorentina
Form (all competitions, most recent first): LDWDLL
Where they stand: 8th in Italian Serie A 

Basel
Form (all competitions, most recent first): LWWLWD
Where they stand: 5th in Swiss Super League 

Expert predictions

Paolo Menicucci, Fiorentina reporter
Fiorentina may have won only one of their last seven games in all competitions but don’t be fooled by this stat; the Viola are in good form. A couple of bad results did not prevent them booking a place in the UEFA Conference League semi-final and Coppa Italia final respectively, for example. And Italiano's side are becoming a goal machine when they play in this competition, with 31 scored in their last ten matches.

Jürgen Baumgartner, Basel reporter
Basel face a mountain to climb in Italy, but the Swiss side have shown several times this season that they enjoy their role as outsiders. Even so, they do not go into this game in the best of shape, with key defender Andy Pelmard a doubt along with Riccardo Calafiori – and both having sat out Sunday's 2-0 home loss to Zürich in which Basel conceded twice in added time and had three players sent off. Nevertheless, Basel's major asset is their attack, with young forwards Zeki Amdouni and Andi Zeqiri boasting five Europa Conference League goals apiece this term and surely hungry for more.

What the coaches say

Vincenzo Italiano, Fiorentina coach: "It is an important semi-final, and we must find a way to play intelligently. It's not a question of me or of one player, we must all work together to overcome what will be a complicated match."

Heiko Vogel, interim Basel coach: "For tomorrow we expect a very difficult match against a very strong opponent. We will have very little time to attack, so we will have to play the perfect match. Fiorentina are tactically versatile and we must be courageous."

What happens next?

The second leg takes place in Basel on 18 May, with the winners advancing to the 2023 Europa Conference League final against West Ham or AZ Alkmaar. Fiorentina or Basel will be the nominal home team in the final, which takes place at the Eden Arena in Prague, Czechia (pictured above) on Wednesday 7 June.