Austria - Fenerbahçe |

17.08.2022

"Underdog with confidence"

Austria Wien hosts Turkish giants Fenerbahçe in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League playoff at a sold-out Viola Park on Thursday at 9:00 pm. Coach Manfred Schmid and captain Lukas Mühl talk about the first big European Cup night in Vienna-Favoriten this year.

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"The anticipation is huge. It's great to play in the Europa League playoff. For many players in my team, it's the biggest international game of their careers. We want our opponent to feel that tomorrow's game is special for us. We want to perform as a team - as a unit with our fans. I believe that we can then be really unpleasant for Fenerbahçe," says coach Manfred Schmid.

Fenerbahçe's squad has a much higher market value, so the Turkish record champions will go into the UEFA Europa League group stage playoff as favorites: "The crucial thing will be that we don't freeze in awe of this big name. We have to get rid of the nervousness that might be there in one or the other player as soon as possible and try to play our game and impose our plan. We may be an underdog, but we're an underdog with some confidence," Schmid described.

Captain Lukas Mühl adds, "We're really looking forward to a really awesome atmosphere and a heated game. This will be a career highlight for every player. We have worked out a good plan. We want to be toxic and stand up to it as a unit. We'll try to turn the atmosphere from the stands into positive energy. The most important thing will be that we perform together as a team."

Personnel News

Matan Baltaxa, Ziad El Sheiwi, Marko Raguž and Armand Smrcka continue to be out. Marco Djuricin and Can Keles already celebrated their comebacks on Saturday against WSG Tirol. James Holland, Andreas Gruber and Johannes Handl trained in the final training, but they are still questionable: "We will decide on Thursday who can play. I don't expect any of them to be able to play 90 minutes yet," Manfred Schmid explained.