"It makes every Veilchen heart beat faster"

Name: FK Austria Wien
Price range: $

Thursday evening, floodlights at the Verteilerkreis, European Cup flair in Vienna-Favoriten: Austria Wien welcomes Israeli runners-up Hapoel Be'er Scheva in the first group match of the UEFA Europa Conference League at 6:45pm. "The anticipation is huge, we have six international group games, for the players it's a great reward, for us as a coaching team it's a huge story. I think every Austrian's heart swells when we can play a group stage here in our stadium," emphasises coach Manfred Schmid.

GEPA

For the first time since December 2011 (2:0 against Malmö) a European Cup group match will be staged in Vienna-Favoriten. In the meantime, the Violets have played one Champions League and two Europa League group stages at the Happel Stadium. All the greater is the anticipation among all Austrian players for our big European Cup evening on Thursday.

Single tickets and three-ticket subscriptions are still available online at fak.at/tickets and at the Ticket Corner in the fanshop.

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In the Bundesliga, Austria had to settle for a 2-2 draw against promoted Lustenau on Saturday. Coach Manfred Schmid reveals: "We have been working more on the defence in the last few days, and that doesn't just affect the defenders, but everyone. The switching behaviour to the back when the ball is lost is an important topic to which everyone has to contribute. But at the same time, there are many things in our game that are really good."

Opponents Hapoel Be'er Scheva already advanced to Q2 of the UEFA Europa Conference League as Israeli runners-up, beating Dinamo Minsk (Belarus), FC Lugano (Switzerland) and FC Craiova (Romania/on penalties). In the league, they started the season with one win and two defeats.

Our opponents. Our group.

"We expect an opponent who brings a lot of quality and plays very aggressively. They are very flexible in their playing systems and have a team that can play very good football if you let them," explains Manfred Schmid, who has Matan Baltaxa in his ranks, a player who knows Hapoel Be'er Scheva very well, only played against them last time in May and injured himself in that match of all things.

The parallel match between Villarreal and Lech Poznan will be played at the same time in Valencia, and the Spaniards are the big favourites in Group C of the UEFA Europa Conference League: "For us, it will be decisive how we play the first two group matches against Hapoel Be'er Scheva and Lech Poznan. It's clear that we need a good start to have a chance of finishing second," said Manfred Schmid, who also commented on the personnel situation after the final training session at the stadium:

Personnel news

"Ziad El Sheiwi played a very good half at the Young Violets at the weekend and is already physically very far along, but will also need time. Muki Huskovic trained with the team again for the first time, otherwise the personnel situation remains the same as last time."