Federico Chiesa, Nikola Kalinic and Federico Bernardeschi all started for Fiorentina in La Viola’s last European game more than five years ago. The Tuscans play their first European match since 2016-17 tonight. It’s a Conference League playoff clash against Dutch side Twente at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. The last time Fiorentina played in Europe was in 2016-17, when they reached the Europa League Round of 32. Borussia Monchengladbach eliminated the Tuscans following a 4-2 win in Florence. Fiorentina had beaten the Germans 1-0 a week earlier.

That final game at the Stadio Artemio Franchi saw many big players on the pitch. Fiorentina line-up with a 3-5-2 formation with Ciprian Tatarusanu in goal, Carlos Sanchez, Gonzalo Rodriguez and Davide Astori in defence, Federico Chiesa, Milan Badelj, Matias Vecino and Maximiliano Oliveira in midfield. Borja Valero and Federico Bernardeschi behind Nikola Kalinic. Paulo Sousa was in charge of the Tuscans who scored early in the first half with Kalinic and Borja Valero.

However, the Germans netted four goals in just 15 minutes with Lars Stindl (hat-trick) and Andreas Christensen so La Viola was eliminated from the competition and remained out of Europe for the following five years.

With Bernadeschi and Chiesa now at Juventus, the two former Italy U21 international stars will be looking to help the Old Lady during their European campaign this season. Although Chiesa is still out with an injury and still needs some time to return to training,  the club’s manager Maximiliano Allegri has already outlined that he misses the attacker from his team and would love to get him back as soon as possible.

Chiesa has indeed been a big miss for Juventus and if they’re going to be intent about having a very fluid attack,  then they would have to do everything it takes to bring the Italian back to the team soon.