Football Bet of the Day: Floodgates to open in Florence

• First leg was a seven-goal thriller

• Fiorentina scoring freely at home

• Visitors can contribute to BTTS wager

Fiorentina v Maccabi Haifa
Thursday 14 March, 17:45
Live on TNT Sports

Nice weren't so nice to us last night, as their much-vaunted defence leaked three goals in a 3-1 reverse at PSG in the Coupe de France. With a growl of annoyance, we zoom from Paris to Florence, because Fiorentina are hoping to book their place in the Europa Conference League quarter-finals by edging out Israeli side Maccabi Haifa.

Fiorentina have become an outstanding cup team under enterprising coach Vincenzo Italiano. La Viola reached the final of the UECL last term, but were beaten by West Ham in Prague. They also lost that season's Coppa Italia final to Inter. This season they have reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia (they will face Atalanta over two legs to decide who reaches the final), and they are on course to progress in Europe.

Last week's 4-3 first-leg win was chaotic. Fiorentina went into an early 1-0 lead, went 2-1 and 3-2 down before snatching the victory in the 95th minute after Maccabi had been reduced to ten men. That attacking firepower has been a running theme for Fiorentina recently - they drew 2-2 with Roma at the weekend in Serie A, and have scored at least twice in five of their last eight games.

Maccabi Haifa have had a tough few days, as they followed up their defeat to Fiorentina with a 2-1 loss at Maccabi Bnei Raina in Israel's top division. They are now five points behind the leaders Maccabi Tel Aviv in the title race. However, for our purposes it's worth noting that Maccabi have scored in 24 of their last 26 competitive games, and they have to go for it tonight to try to turn this tie around.

On that basis, I think BTTS is an attractive price here at 1.9210/11.