Preview of the away match against Beitar Jerusalem

On Wednesday at 9.00 am, the team flight will take off for Bucharest. Austria will hold their final training session on Wednesday evening at the Ilie Oană Stadium in Ploiești: “International matches always have a completely different atmosphere to our day-to-day fixtures and offer every single player and the whole club the chance to prove themselves. We want to put our best foot forward there. Our players – whether young or old – can gain valuable experience in such international fixtures, which is invaluable for their development," says coach Stephan Helm.

The 0–3 defeat to WAC in the Bundesliga opener was analysed on Monday. It is clear that the Veilchen need to improve in many areas: “The team is very self-critical. We were often too sloppy in our play and, in certain situations – particularly when conceding goals – we didn’t defend consistently enough,” emphasises Helm.

In Beitar Jerusalem, Austria now face an opponent with a different style of play to WAC. As an unseeded team, the Israelis prevailed on penalties against AEK Larnaca – last season’s Europa League round of 16 side – in the second qualifying round of the Conference League. Last season, Beitar finished second in the Israeli league, just three points behind champions Hapoel Beer Sheva. This year’s league campaign begins on 22 August.

“Beitar are a side who play with great creativity and courage when in possession, whilst at the same time being very aggressive when out of possession. We’ll have to adapt to that. We need to find the right balance and be very clear in our actions,” explains Stephan Helm.

Team news

Aleksandar Dragović returns to the squad after recovering from a concussion. Johannes Eggestein is carrying a slight knock and will miss the European Cup match. Philipp Wiesinger is still undergoing rehabilitation training and is unavailable, as are the two long-term injury absentees, Noah Botić and Manprit Sarkaria.