The team plane took off shortly after 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, with numerous business partners and fans on board alongside the players, coaches and staff. In total, we are expecting around 300 Austrian players in Tampere, including all those travelling individually.

‘It's always something special when you play internationally as a club - you can feel the positive energy. We fly through Europe together and complete the final training session at the opponent's stadium in the evening - that creates a special flair,’ says coach Stephan Helm.

‘Want to be there at the point’

In the first competitive match of the season, the aim is to secure a good starting position for the second leg in Vienna (Wednesday, 31 July, 20:30 - buy tickets now) in order to advance to Q3: ‘I am convinced that we are well prepared - the team gives me a good feeling. The first three weeks of preparation were focussed on fitness. In the last seven to eight days, the focus has been on being there on the dot. I think we've got the timing right and are now really fresh for the first game,’ explains Helm.

Opponents Ilves Tampere are not at the start of the season, but in the middle of the league, which is played as a year-round championship in Finland. Ilves qualified for the current European Cup competition as Cup winners in 2023 and are currently in fourth place in the Finnish league:

This is how Stephan Helm rates Ilves Tampere

Ilves Tampere are currently having a good season, they are only two points behind Helsinki, the best club in Finland, who they beat a few weeks ago. In offence, they have one of the top scorers in the league in Harala. The team is technically skilled and plays combinative football - that's the general trend in Finland at the moment. We have to be very aggressive against the ball in Tampere and at the same time be courageous with the ball ourselves and find good solutions,’ said the Austria coach.

The game will be played on Thursday evening at the Tammelan Stadium (capacity 8,000) on artificial turf, where the Violets will complete their final training session on Wednesday at 19:00 local time. Coach Stephan Helm can draw on a wealth of experience with artificial turf pitches from his time in Switzerland: ‘The surface will be fast, our players are professionals and will quickly get used to it during the final training session - that won't prevent us from putting in a good performance. We know that we'll find good conditions on artificial turf.’

Personnel news

Andi Gruber, who was substituted as a precaution in the last test match against FC Porto, will have to wait for the final training session. Otherwise there is no personnel news. Johannes Handl, as well as the long-term injured Marko Raguz, Florian Wustinger & Ziad El Sheiwi are still out.