West Ham is the slight favorite to win the Europa Conference League, but Fiorentina looks like the better pick for the set-piece occasion in Prague.
Who do Bettors Favor?
According to the top sports betting sites (and you can check out our sportsbook reviews here) bettors are favoring West Ham in the match betting markets, although not by a significant margin. The Premier League team is priced at between +166 and +180, while the shortest price available for Fiorentina is +175 and the draw can be wagered at between +212 and +226.
| Conference League Final |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiorentina | +180 | +173 | +175 |
| Draw | +212 | +226 | +215 |
| West Ham | +180 | +166 | +170 |
Fiorentina Chasing Cup Win
The Europa Conference League is Fiorentina's only remaining chance to win a trophy after their loss in the Coppa Italia final last week, although it was the underdog against Internazionale.
The team has been in excellent form throughout the competition, which is fantastic news for Fiorentina supporters going into this encounter. The team has been impressive from the start, losing just once in the Group stage and going on to defeat Sivasspor, Sporting Braga, Lech Poznan, and Basel on its road to the final despite the fact that the club hasn't won a European title in 62 years.
Arthur Cabral, the tournament's top scorer, helped Fiorentina reach the final in style. The team scored 36 goals in just 14 games, making it the highest-scoring in the competition, and although it had only won two of its previous seven games going into the weekend, it ended its Serie A season with a convincing 3-1 victory over Sassuolo.
West Ham Unbeaten
West Ham, like Fiorentina, won the European Cup Winners Cup in the 1960s, but the London team also had success in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Although David Moyes' team did not perform well in the Premier League, where it ultimately placed 14th, it was resilient throughout the Conference League season. It came out of Group B with six wins out of six, then defeated AEK Larnaca, Gent, and AZ Alkmaar to advance to the final in Prague, making it the only team without a loss in this season's competition.
West Ham has certainly provided plenty of entertainment for its supporters in recent weeks. With a win over Leicester City at the weekend to close out its domestic campaign, the London club has now won seven of its past 11 games overall.
Europa Conference League Head to Head
Both of these teams have previously met, albeit it was almost 50 years ago, in a long-defunct competition. The head-to-head archive reveals that Fiorentina and West Ham were drawn in opposition in the 1975 Anglo-Italian League Cup Winners' Cup, with Fiorentina winning both matches 1-0.
Over the years, Fiorentina has established a good record against English clubs. In 12 matches, La Viola has defeated English opposition six times, drawn three times, and lost three times. These victories include wins over Liverpool in the Champions League in 2009–10 and Tottenham in the Europa League in 2014–15. By contrast, West Ham was defeated by Palermo 4-0 on aggregate in its only previous matchup with Italian opponents, those games coming in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup.
Europa Conference League Team News
Fiorentina has some encouraging team news going into this game. Although Salvatore Sirigu, the Italian club's first-choice goalkeeper, is absent, the rest of the squad is in good shape.
Cabral, Sofyan Amrabat, Christian Kouame, and Nicolas Gonzalez all participated in the final game of the Serie A season, as head coach Vincenzo Italiano didn't have to consider resting important players, while Luka Jovic, who did not play against Sassuolo, is likely to have a part to play in Prague.
The West Ham squad is also at near-full strength. Only Gianluca Scamacca is absent as he continues to recover from knee surgery. Nayef Aguerd is over the dead leg he experienced against Leeds, while in the West Ham attack, Moyes has a choice between Danny Ings and Michail Antonio.
He will also be counting on Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal, two former Slavia Prague players who both played on this pitch earlier this season while still with the Czech side, to be at their best in familiar territory.
Europa Conference Match Betting Pick
Although West Ham is in better shape going into this game than its Italian opponent, overall, it has had the poorer season of the two. Fiorentina plays a far more sophisticated style of football and finished eighth in Serie A while the Hammers ended up fourteenth in the Premier League.
Moyes will undoubtedly pull out all of the stops to make his team difficult to beat, but Fiorentina has this season found a method to get past most defenses, making the Italian team the best pick here.
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