On Sunday afternoon (5 pm), the Veilchen welcome Austria Klagenfurt to the Generali-Arena. By Friday, 14,000 tickets had already been sold for our members' match. At today's press conference, captain Manfred Fischer was already looking forward to the last home game of the season: ‘The training week was really cool. You can tell how hungry we are!’

Head coach Stephan Helm on...

... opponents Austria Klagenfurt:
‘It's up to us to set the rhythm of the game. We want to play with pressure on goal. They have a coach who knows the league very well, they held Salzburg to a draw and only narrowly lost to LASK last week. They are very experienced in defence and have one of the top scorers in the league up front in Bobzien. We expect a well-organised opponent.’

... the typical matchday preparation:
‘Preparation begins with the follow-up to the last game in each case. Even more so if the opponent has a similar style of play. We prepare for the opponent in terms of content before the training sessions. Our video analysts Daniel Gasser and Philipp Steiner prepare this for us coaches. We incorporate things into the training sessions that prepare us for the upcoming opponent. At the final training session, there is another specific video analysis. However, we use the training week primarily for ourselves. We adapt to the opponent in nuances. We have to build up an arc of tension.

The match day itself: In the morning there's a joint warm-up, a little huddle, and after lunch we discuss the game. That doesn't take much longer than 10 minutes. The players should get into a flow and not be bombarded with information, their heads have to be free.’

... his role as a motivator:
‘I have developed a great deal of trust in the team. They approach their tasks with seriousness. The players we have on the pitch support each other wherever they can. As a coach, my focus is on where I should intervene to provide support. It's important to create an environment where you can get the maximum out of it. You should feel safe, you should be allowed to make mistakes. We build on this basis. The team repays the trust, and the fans do too.’

... the fan factor:
‘The spectators are of course a big factor. If they don't back the team, things quickly become unsettled. Our fans honour the fact that the team has always kept all games open for 90 minutes and has won some of them. I have the feeling that the fans trust us now.’

... the role of the substitutes:
‘In every squad with over 20 players, there are those who play more and those who play less. Over 32 rounds, everyone gets their chance. We have a certain culture where everyone pulls together and prioritises the goals of the club. Anyone who doesn't have that is in the wrong profession. Otherwise the work wouldn't work at all.’

Captain Manfred Fischer on...

... the upcoming opponent:
‘We will need a focussed performance to win. We have to be careful in our counter-pressing and not run into dangerous counter-attacks. The training week was really cool, you can see how hungry the team is. I'm very happy about that.’

... their own expectations:
‘Our approach is: We want to. You can see that in every training session, in every game. I warmly invite everyone to follow our training sessions. We step on the gas. As a team, we don't put any pressure on ourselves to achieve anything. We want to get better from game to game, looking from week to week, even if some are already tired of this statement. We want to get the maximum out of every single training session, every practice and every game. It wasn't easy against GAK in the first half. I'm expecting a similar game against Austria Klagenfurt. They will make it as difficult as possible for us. The cool thing is that - even when we're behind - we always know that we can turn the game around. We want to finish the season in such a way that we can say afterwards: We tried everything. In the end, we'll see if it was enough for anything.’