Having been eliminated by Lyon in the Champions League third qualifying phase, Grasshoppers face another uphill task as they battle star-studded Fiorentina for a place in the Europa League group stages.

One of Switzerland’s most famous clubs have endured some tough times in the new millennium, but they appear to be slowly returning to the right track.

Even if they ended up missing out on the league title by mere three points last term, everybody at the club must have been delighted with a Champions League qualification.

However, GCZ were pretty unfortunate to be pitted against Lyon in the third qualifying stage, and despite showing some promise in the process, they ended up recording two 1-0 defeats.

The team have experienced some problems on domestic stage as well, sharing spoils with Lausanne and Sion before winning the Cup tie against Kriens, but they should still be in better shape than Fiorentina, whose domestic campaign starts this weekend.

Even so, odds of 3.40 (12/5) offered at Titan Bet on home win do not look too tempting when we know how they are facing one of Italy’s strongest sides.

Boss Michael Skibbe has a courtesy of picking from a fully fit squad, meaning he could field the same side that started the return leg against Lyon.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-4-1): Burki – M. Lang, Vilotic, Grichting, Pavlovic – Salatic – Hajrovic, Abrashi, Nzuzi, Gashi – Ngamukol.

Fiorentina are on the road to return to old glory days and they have done really well to close the gap behind the top Serie A sides last term.

Viola were pretty impressive throughout the league campaign and ended up achieving a fourth-place finish, missing out on the final Champions League berth by mere two points.

The club have since continued to reinforce the squad, adding the likes of Mario Gomez, Josip Ilicic, Joaquin and Marcos Alonso, among others, so as to make sure the team mount another serious top 3 challenge this term.

Viola haven’t really impressed in pre-season, losing to Sporting Lisbon and Villarreal in the final two warm-up games, but chances are they will fare much better once the competitive action starts.

Fiorentina will be, therefore, looking to record a victory in Zurich, and they are 2.10 (11/10) with Stan James to succeed in their quest.

David Pizarro and Ahmed Hegazy miss out through injury, but new signings Josip Ilicic, Marcos Alonso, Joaquin and Mario Gomez are in line for debuts.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Neto – Tomovic, Rodriguez, Savic, Pasqual – Aquilani, Ambrosini, Borja Valero – Cuadrado, Gomez, Ljajic.

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