The spectre of Manchester United will hover over the Mestalla stadium in Valencia tonight where Serie A side Fiorentina are the visitors in a Champions League Group B clash. For Fiorentina, the object of the exercise is simple - they must pick up at least one point tonight so as to avoid travelling to Old Trafford next week in search of the points needed to earn a quarter-final place.

Nobody in the Fiorentina camp is saying it out loud but, just at the moment, the Florence club does not exactly fancy its chances of picking up away points at Old Trafford. At first glance, this might seem odd. After all, Fiorentina are the current Group B leaders, having already beaten Manchester United 2-0 in Florence. Furthermore, they come into tonight's game in Valencia on the back of successive wins against Parma, Valencia and Piacenza.

In theory, Fiorentina should have everything going for them. In practice, this has been a Jekyll and Hyde season for a side in which Fiorentina have alternated the occasional good showing in the Champions League (a 1-0 win against Arsenal in the first phase and that 2-0 November win against United) with dismal Serie A form and 20 points behind Juventus.

Fiorentina can take heart from the current good from of Portuguese playmaker Rui Costa and of long-term injury victim, Yugoslav Pedrag Mijatovic. These pair proved decisive in last Wednesday's 1-0 win against Valencia where Mijatovic converted the all-decisive penalty.

Five-year-olds in the Florentine streets, however, know that Fiorentina's game revolves around one man and one alone - Argentine striker and captain Gabriel Batistuta. However, Batistuta is currently playing well below his best form, troubled by two painfully swollen ankles.

Symptomatic of Batistuta's current mini-crisis was one amazing miss against Valencia last week when, with the goal empty, he managed to head wide from all of two yards out. Fiorentina's experienced coach Giovanni Trapattoni believes his "main man" is improving in form, but adds:

"I think he could be in better condition, tonight . . . One of Batistuta's problems, however, is that his team-mates always knock the ball to him, almost as if they believe that he can take the ball away from opponents and score at will."

While Fiorentina were impressive against bottom of table Piacenza on Saturday, so too were Valencia in a 2-0 win against Athletic Bilbao.

Having taken the lead through that 20th-minute Mijatovic penalty, Fiorentina then surrendered the initiative for long periods to Valencia who were denied equalisers on at least three occasions by excellent goalkeeping from Francesco Toldo. The fact that the latter is suspended tonight, due to be replaced by former Napoli goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela, hardly does much for Fiorentina's seemingly shaky nerves.

The inventiveness of Valencia midfielder Christian Killy Gonzalez, the pace of both Romanian striker Adrian Illie and Lopez and the attacking contribution of 35-year-old French full back Jocelyn Angloma are all other good reasons for Florentine caution, a point conceded by coach Trapattoni:

"I don't want to even begin talking about the quarter-finals. If our previous group with Arsenal and Barcelona was considered iron-tough by everyone, this group is even tougher . . .

Paddy Agnew can be contacted at pagnew@aconet.it