AN UNUSUAL RIVAL
This summer, we’ve faced familiar foes in Leeds United, West Ham United, Bournemouth, and Everton, and we still have at least two more matches against each of them before May arrives.
However, our meeting with Fiorentina is a different story. It has been 25 years since this Serie A team was drawn into our UEFA Champions League group during the 1999/2000 season, and since then, both clubs have undergone significant changes.
Back then, United was the reigning European champion when we suffered a 2-0 defeat in Tuscany, a loss we avenged later that season with a 3-1 win at Old Trafford.
Fiorentina faced major challenges as well—they went out of business a couple of years after those matches, only to be re-established in the fourth tier due to financial difficulties.
They quickly climbed back to Serie A in 2004 and have maintained a steady presence in the league since, though they’ve yet to return to the heights they reached in the late 1990s, when stars like Gabriel Batistuta and Manuel Rui Costa donned their iconic purple jerseys.
