On Sunday afternoon (5:00 pm), the Veilchen welcome Wolfsberger AC to the Generali-Arena. 11,000 tickets have been sold. After being knocked out of the Cup semi-final against Hartberg, coach Stephan Helm was combative at today's press conference: ‘We will get back up, nobody can stop us so quickly!’

Coach Stephan Helm ...

... on opponents WAC:
'It will be a game against an opponent at eye level. They are well organised and were able to generate a certain amount of euphoria by reaching the cup final. They are quite rightly in the top half of the table. We're looking at ourselves. I sensed again in training today that things can't move fast enough.'

... on the painful elimination from the Cup:
'*We have to get back in touch with reality. The fans' expectations were huge. We saw again on Wednesday how passionate we are about the game. That was also honoured by the stands. We didn't find our feet in the second half. We want to learn from this game and have to function for the full 90 minutes. We now have to focus on the championship. Our path is the right one. The lads have the mentality, they'll get up again. Nobody can stop us so quickly.'

... on Aleksandar Dragović's red card:
'Drago always throws everything into it. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. I have to defend him a bit, he's a passionate player. He was also able to react well after his emotion, admitted the mistake and immediately apologised. Even as an experienced player, you never stop learning. He's not a serial offender, he's generally rather blameless. Let he who has never slipped up in an emotional situation cast the first stone.'

Note: Aleksandar Dragović was given a three-match ban (one match suspended) by Senate 1 of the Bundesliga for insulting a match official in the aftermath of the Cup semi-final against Hartberg. Austria will lodge a protest against this judgement.

Johannes Handl ... 

... on his (almost) six-year anniversary at Austria:
'I didn't even have that in mind. At the beginning I was actually planned for the Young Violets. I would never have dreamed that I would then take such a path. We've experienced a lot of ups and downs. We will continue to work hard towards our goals.'

... the semi-final defeat against Hartberg:
'We wanted to reach the final. It really hurt that we didn't achieve that. We have to look ahead. The game wasn't bad, the result was. Hartberg weren't really dangerous up front, we didn't get into the sixteen. We were naturally very disappointed, but we wanted to take the good things with us. We have to bring that onto the pitch against WAC on Sunday. The WAC game will be different to the one against Hartberg.'

... the suspension of Aleks Dragović:
'We have incredible quality in the back line. The competition drives us on. You can never rest, you always have to perform. Drago's suspension won't change anything. Everyone who plays instead of him will perform. We'll do what we always do: Stand well.'

Squad news 

Hakim Guenoche is back in training after a bruised heel. Andi Gruber is struggling with a injury and will be available on match day. Konstantin Aleksa trained with the first team all week and could be back in the squad against Wolfsberg.