Preview of the away game in Klagenfurt

The league break is over and the Violets are back in action. On Sunday (2:30 pm), Philipp Wiesinger & Co will visit Austria Klagenfurt. Coach Stephan Helm knows the opponent and knows what is important in Carinthia. The aim is three points at our neighbours in the table.

Friday's training session is over, the Violet coaching team is preparing a video analysis for the team, which is due to start at 12:00 noon. Stephan Helm is in the thick of things instead of just being there, but takes a moment to talk about the last few days and the next few.

‘We made good use of the league break, for example with the test match against Admira, to give some players minutes. Last week, the focus was on working against the ball and we also worked on two, three aspects with the ball. I think we can take a lot of positives from that’, said Helm.

Training returnees: ‘That's very pleasing’

Several players have also been able to return to training in recent days: ‘Jo Handl is becoming more and more integrated into team training, Luca Pazourek is back and Abu Barry was also able to get back on the pitch with his colleagues for the first time today. Flo Wustinger will get his first competitive minutes with our partner club Stripfing, which is all very pleasing.’

Since Monday, the focus has clearly been on Austria Klagenfurt, ‘the players have presented themselves well and fully participated’, reports Helm. Philipp Wiesinger is also positive: ‘The training week was very intensive but focussed and we are all ready to give our all on the pitch in Klagenfurt. We want to take three points there, that's clearly our goal.’

The Carinthians are currently one point (and one game) behind the Violets in eighth place in the table. There is a big scramble in midfield, with Blau-Weiß Linz in third place and LASK in ninth separated by just four points. A win should see the Violets leap into the top six.

Cracking stable Klagenfurt

Philipp Wiesinger knows: ‘We have to bring our game, our strengths to the pitch, then we will make it difficult for Klagenfurt. We've thought about a few things, our mechanisms are improving every week and you can see that in training. But it's still too rare on the pitch and now we have to put it into practice.’

‘Klagenfurt are a good opponent, they've proven in recent years that they're very stable. We have to find a way to break them down and we have the means to do so in our ranks. We know exactly what we're up against there, but we also know where our strengths lie - and we have to bring them onto the pitch,’ demands Stephan Helm, before returning to the presentation of the video analysis.