Celje take on the visitors Fiorentina in the first leg of UEFA Conference League quarterfinals. The match will be played on Thursday, April 10th at Stadion Z'dezele (Celje).
Celje are fully focused on this competition. The Counts only began to show real promise after the breakup of Yugoslavia. They won their first Slovenian title in 2020 and repeated that success last season, but this year they’re clearly out of the title race, trailing the leaders by a wide margin. One major reason for their domestic drop-off is their strong focus on European competitions. After beating Flora but losing to Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League, and falling to Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League despite an equal exchange of wins, Celje have been battling hard in the Conference League. They began this tournament with a loss to Pyunik, and only earned 7 points in the group stage. Still, they managed to progress to the knockouts, where they eliminated APOEL with a 2-0 win away after a draw at home, and then got past Lugano on penalties. Although their play hasn’t been flashy, their resilience has carried them farther than many expected. Confidence is growing, and they’ll be hoping to cause an upset at home.
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Fiorentina had a peculiar sort of consistency under Italiano, finishing eighth in Serie A twice and reaching back-to-back Conference League finals in 2023 and 2024 — only to lose both. Now under Raffaele Palladino, the team has a shot at a better domestic finish, though the race for the top six remains extremely tight in Italy. In Europe, they narrowly avoided an early exit, scraping past Puskás Akadémia in qualifying via penalties after two draws. They later collected 13 points in the group stage with four wins and went directly into the round of 16. There they engaged in an entertaining tie with Panathinaikos, losing 2-3 in Athens but bouncing back with a 3-1 win at home. While Fiorentina remain vulnerable defensively, their attacking quality and depth make them one of the tournament favorites.
The Florence-based club has never visited the Slovenian side before, marking this as their first-ever head-to-head meeting. The Azzurri have far more strength and European experience and should be able to get the job done away from home. We’re backing them to win with a -1 goal handicap.
Prediction for the match: Fiorentina to win with -1.0 handicap.
