Violets want to play for victory in 'final' match

Austria needs one more point in the last match of the basic round to finally secure its participation in the championship group by its own efforts. The direction for the away game against Admira (Sunday, 5:00 p.m.) is clear: "We've played good soccer in recent weeks, which makes us optimistic, and we want to build on that. We will play to win again," emphasizes coach Manfred Schmid.

Days after the 1-0 home win against WAC, some players still had goose bumps when they thought back to the atmosphere in the Generali Arena. We can also expect great support from Austria fans at the guest game in Südstadt.

The Austria sector (capacity: 1,200) has been sold out since Thursday morning, and many Violets have already moved to the main stand. The Viola Sportsbar remains exceptionally closed, according to the motto: Let's color the Südstadt Violet!

Together, they should succeed in making it into the championship group on Sunday: "No one would have expected this good starting position at the beginning of the season, so it's all the nicer that we've presented ourselves so well in recent weeks. It would be important for the whole team and the club that we make it into the championship group, not least because the players can develop better there," says Manfred Schmid.

Our head coach will have to watch the game against Admira from the stands due to his red card against WAC, from 30 minutes before kick-off he will not be allowed in the dressing room or on the pitch, the two co-coaches Cem Sekerlioglu and Mark McCormick will take over the duties during the game:

"We have two very competent co-coaches who I trust very much. The preparation will run as usual, the preliminary discussion will take place as always in advance at the team hotel," explains Manfred Schmid.

Austria have celebrated three wins in a row in the spring, the last time they did so was in October 2016. The Violets have been unbeaten against Admira in the Bundesliga for twelve games, and have won the last three encounters in Südstadt.

In the previous week, Admira (11th) achieved a sense of achievement with a 2-0 win over Altach (12th). "We have analyzed our opponent very carefully, but are primarily focusing on developing our own game," emphasized Schmid.

Personnel news:

Eric Martel is missing after his fifth yellow card suspension. Vesel Demaku, Muharem Huskovic, Johannes Handl and Dominik Fitz are back in team training. Georg Teigl, Ziad El Sheiwi and Florian Wustinger remain injured.