Champions League

Sturm Graz against Sporting Lisbon from 9pm LIVE

Sturm Graz can breathe Champions League air again.

(Bild: APA/ERWIN SCHERIAU)

Sturm Graz want to carry the "flow" of their Bundesliga wins into the Champions League. Sporting in Klagenfurt on Tuesday will be the next tough test for the Austrian soccer double winners, who are still without points after two top-flight games. Kick-off is at 9pm, we will be reporting live (see ticker below).

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The Portuguese are dominating their championship even more than Sturm and have made a big impression on Graz coach Christian Ilzer ahead of the reunion.

"One of the best teams"
"For me, Sporting are currently one of the best teams in Europe," said Ilzer. The Sturm coach tends to understate his position ahead of international assignments, but the figures for Sporting Clube de Portugal are certainly impressive. After eight games with eight wins in the Portuguese league, the big club from Lisbon has a goal difference of 27:2. In the Champions League, they beat Lille 2:0 and drew 1:1 in Eindhoven.

Sturm coach Christian Ilzer

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Sturm have met all three teams in the recent past with little success. They failed to pick up a point against Sporting in the 2023 Europa League. In Graz, the "Leões" (lions) still seemed tame on the first matchday, with the score at 1-2 only ten minutes before the end. The 3-0 defeat in Lisbon then went down in Sturm history as a synonym for a lack of chances. A physically exhausted Ilzer team was well served with the result. The difference in level against an opponent who was already promoted and had enormous ball security was striking.

Don't stare in admiration
If the Sturm managers are to be believed, the 20-time Portuguese champions have by no means become worse since then. "When you clearly outclass Benfica and Porto like last year, you know how strong this team is," said Ilzer. The team ranked 31st out of 36 teams will now face the twelfth-placed team. "Nevertheless, we don't want to freeze in admiration, we want to be confident."

Against Brest (1:2) and Bruges (0:1), they only managed that in phases. However, Graz's collective form curve is pointing upwards. According to Ilzer, the 5:0 against Salzburg and 5:2 in the derby against GAK are not least due to "lessons learned from the Champions League". He has noticed "a good momentum", a "flow" around his team. However, Ilzer also saw that his team can sometimes lose its balance even in the Bundesliga against a harmless GAK. The injuries to Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Gregory Wüthrich mean they lack routine.

"We can take a lot of confidence from the last few games. But we should also start turning good performances into results in the Champions League," said striker Mika Biereth. "We're going in with a good feeling," promised full-back Jusuf Gazibegovic after the derby win. "I hope that we can also show this face in the Champions League and thus fully challenge Sporting."

The opponents arrive as a well-coordinated squad that was strengthened by a further €50 million in the summer. While Sturm paid a club-record €4.7 million for Biereth, the Portuguese side brought in Biereth's Danish U21 teammate Conrad Harder from Nordsjaelland for €19 million as a replacement for one-man striker Viktor Gyökeres. The latter scores on average every 81 minutes for Sporting and, with 29 goals in the calendar year, is by far the number one in Europe's top 10 leagues. Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski follow with 23 goals each. This does not even take into account the fact that the powerful center forward scored four times for Sweden in the Nations League in the autumn.

Not too long a stay
The Sporting coach is still Ruben Amorim. The Portuguese was long considered the favorite to succeed Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool, but ultimately lost out to Arne Slot. According to media reports, those responsible at the Reds saw Amorim's preferred 3-4-3 as possibly too much of a systematic change. "Who knows on which command bridge you will see the coach next year", Ilzer assumes that the 39-year-old will not stay in Lisbon for too long. Amorim has recently had to rebuild his defense. Ousmane Diomande, the central central defender, is also out against Sturm due to an ankle injury.