Fiorentina head into the opening day of the Serie A campaign fresh off the back of a 3-0 victory over FC Polissya in the first leg of the Conference League play-offs.

The Viola's first domestic opponents are Cagliari, who began their season with a Coppa Italia win over Virtus Entella, eventually seeing off the Serie B side on penalties in their first-round clash last weekend.

Sunday's league meeting will be the 91^st between these two sides. Previous encounters have yielded 40 Fiorentina wins, 25 for Cagliari and 25 draws.

The Viola are unbeaten in nine matches against the Sardinians (W6, D3) and have won the last four. Cagliari's last victory came in November 2019 – a 5-2 success at Unipol Domus with Rolando Maran in charge.

The 21 matches played with Cagliari as the home side are perfectly even: seven wins each and seven draws. Fiorentina have triumphed on their last two trips to the island.

This will be the second time these teams have faced off on the opening day. The first was in 1994/95, when the Viola edged a 2-1 win at the Franchi.

Cagliari have drawn their last four opening-day matches while Fiorentina are unbeaten on Matchday 1 in the last three seasons (two wins and a draw).

Stefano Pioli, who has taken up the coaching reins at a former club for the first time in his career, has obtained more wins against Cagliari than against any other team – 14 in 23 meetings.

There are numerous players who have played for both clubs – Alfred Duncan, Giovanni Simeone, Riccardo Sottil and Michael Folorunsho among the most recent – while Claudio Ranieri was head coach at Fiorentina before later taking charge at Cagliari.

Sunday's game is scheduled for a 18:30 CEST kick-off at Unipol Domus.