Helm: “This gives us additional strength.”

With a 2-2 draw at home against LASK, Stephan Helm's Violets qualified for the championship group ahead of schedule for the second time in a row. For the Austria coach, who has been in office for over 600 days, this continues a successful run: in 65 competitive games to date, the coach has achieved an average of 1.74 points per game. This means Helm has the highest points average of any Austria coach since the 2012/13 championship season.

"Participating in the championship group is important for Austria because we can expect more attractive games and opponents here, which is a positive challenge for the whole club. What sets us apart is that we can get through difficult phases, such as the start of the season, and draw additional strength from them. You could see that we were in full swing at the start of the spring season against Salzburg and Rapid – most recently, we also took the setback against Altach in our stride and were able to secure a place in the top six on our own with a good performance against LASK," says coach Stephan Helm.

In the last game of the regular season, the Violets will now travel to SV Ried on Sunday, who, in eighth place and two points behind sixth place, still have a chance of qualifying for the championship group, but need a win to do so. Coach Maximilian Senft's team missed out on a better starting position due to their 1-2 defeat at GAK in the 21st round. The cup semifinal against LASK was postponed on Wednesday due to weather conditions:

"Ried is a team that brings its strengths to the pitch with a lot of conviction. Ried plays aggressively, we want to be bold and proactive and show our willingness to take on the fight. You have to expect that they will throw everything into the mix to get into the top six. But we want to keep the focus on ourselves. It's important that we stay hungry and get the most out of the last round of the regular season to put ourselves in the best possible position in the championship group. After that, we'll sit down internally, as we did last year, assess the situation, and map out our plans for the last ten games," explains Stephan Helm.

Johannes Eggestein: “We can expect Ried to be a compact and intense opponent who still want to be in contention for a top-six finish. I'm optimistic that we'll go into the game well prepared after a good week of training, both in terms of tactics and the basics: aggression and intensity will play an important role in this game in a tight stadium with a heated atmosphere.”

Personnel news

Sanel Šaljić will not be available for the away game against Ried due to his thigh injury, but he could be back in contention for the start of the championship group next week. Otherwise, Manprit Sarkaria, Noah Botić, Kelvin Boateng, Konstantin Aleksa, and Ziad El Sheiwi remain sidelined.