#Qualification #group #mission #starts #Wiener #Austria #Altach
After missing out on the championship group, Wiener Austria’s European Cup play-off mission in the qualifying group of the Bundesliga begins with a guest appearance in Altach. The “Violets” lead the bottom half before the start, and Violet wants it to stay that way. In the other two Saturday games, bottom team Austria Lustenau visits Blau-Weiß Linz and WSG Tirol welcomes Wolfsberger AC. Kick-off is at 5:00 p.m.
Vienna Austria leads the qualifying group with 16 points ahead of WAC (15). Behind them are Altach (9), Blau-Weiß Linz (9), WSG Tirol (7) and Austria Lustenau (5).
The Viennese want to have shaken off the disappointment of missing out on the championship group, especially since the latest sporting results are positive. “We have scored 27 points in the last 13 games, are the second best team in the second half of the season and have made twelve points from the five games in the spring,” calculated Austria coach Michael Wimmer.
Now the European Cup should be reached via detours. “Our goal is still achievable and we won’t back away from it,” said Wimmer, who has respect for Altach. “We can expect a physically very strong team that is very present in duels and also has high quality and speed on offense.” The suspended defender Lucas Galvao is not there, but the recovered Luca Pazourek and Manuel Polster, who was recently missing for disciplinary reasons, return.
The SCR Altach also wants to have a say in the fight for Europe, but the Vorarlbergers don’t want to know anything about the relegation battle. “The clear goal is to overtake one of the two in front of us. We saw in the spring that we can keep up with any team,” explained coach Joachim Standfest on Friday. Goal scoring should be better against Austria, although the suspended Mike Bähre is missing.
Just six days after the 2-0 defeat in Bregenz against Lustenauer Austria, Blau-Weiß Linz has the opportunity to take revenge. “The start is extremely important. You definitely have to score points in the first few games. You can’t appear quite as relaxed. It’s important to accept the fight and be fully there,” said Linz coach Gerald Scheiblehner, who divided the points after the game finds the basic round unfair. “Something that you have already worked for is being taken away from you.” The Linzers have been waiting for a league win since mid-November.
With the Lustenauers, however, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. After the victory over Linzer and the division of points, Lustenau is now only four points behind Blau-Weiß and two behind WSG Tirol. Coach Andreas Heraf, who took over Austria during the winter break, breathed new life into it. While there were 14 defeats and only three draws in the league in the fall, the Vorarlbergers recorded two wins, one draw and two defeats in the spring. “We recently showed that we are capable of picking up points and winning. So of course we now want to win the game in Linz,” explained Heraf confidently.
For Thomas Silberberger, the last qualifying group as coach of WSG Tirol begins on Saturday. For the home game against WAC, the 50-year-old’s motto in the relegation battle is “No losing!” out of. However, the WSG lost the first two duels of the season with the Wolfsbergers 2:3 and 1:4 respectively. But Silberberger doesn’t want to attach great importance to this. “We got in our own way in both games. The team knows what to expect and we definitely want to start positively.”
This also applies to the WAC, which has set the European Cup as a clear goal and is also hoping for a “threesome”. “We want to start the last third of the championship perfectly, three points would be very important,” said coach Manfred Schmid. “But it will be very difficult. We know how unpleasant the opponent is. They also played very well against Wiener Austria,” said the Lavanttaler coach, looking back on the last round of the regular season. Schmid expects a lot of intensity, a lot of duels and a little less football in the last ten rounds of the season.
