Conference League
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3rd round in the Conference League: LASK host Cercle Brugge. We report live (see below) from this match!
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LASK are under pressure in the Conference League! If the Linzers want to stay in the competition this winter, three points are almost mandatory in the home game against Cercle Brugge. After two games, the Athletiker are just one point off the pace. Cercle are last year's fourth-placed team from Belgium and, in Austrian coach Miron Muslic, a man who knows Linz. An intense exchange of blows is on the cards.
"Not only play well, but also get three points!"
The previous performances against Djurgarden (2:2) and Olimpija Ljubljana (0:2) were sobering for LASK. The route is now clear. "To be able to dream bigger, it's important not only to play a good game, but also to get three points," noted Markus Schopp. The Styrian, who has been head coach of LASK for two months, believes his team is basically on the right track. What is missing is the reward for the effort, Schopp reiterated. "We manage to produce more in all games. What we don't manage to do is make that noticeable if you only look at the result."
Against Cercle, the aim was to "also make it visible on the scoreboard", said Schopp. 7,000 tickets were sold for the second home game in the Conference League on Wednesday. The Belgians have announced themselves as an opponent against whom LASK will have to hold their own. Cercle are regarded as a pressing machine in Belgium. Muslic, an Upper Austrian by choice, is responsible for this.
The first Cercle games were mixed
The Tyrolean (42) with Bosnian roots once played for Ried and Gmunden and also worked as a coach in the Innviertel region. He also took over as head coach of Ried in the Bundesliga from March 2021, but after ten games without a win - including a 3-0 defeat to LASK - they parted ways again. Six months later, Muslic took on the role of assistant coach at Cercle in Belgium, before succeeding Dominik Thalhammer as head coach in the fall of 2022. After a surprisingly strong last season, things have been a little bumpy this year for the second team from the capital of the province of West Flanders behind the far more prominent Club Brugge.
The first few games have been mixed. They got off to a good start in the Conference League with a 6-2 win over St. Gallen, but then suffered a 3-1 defeat at Vikingur Reykjavik in their second game, which was followed by internal turmoil. Cercle had flown to Iceland without some of their regular players in order to conserve strength for the league. The fans who traveled with the B team were angry after the defeat, and Muslic indirectly referred to a directive from the club's top management in an interview. According to media reports, this did not go down well with the board. Nevertheless, Cercle won the following games against Union Saint-Gilloise and most recently Charleroi and moved up to 11th place in the Pro League.
"You know the coach, he played hard back then!"
Cercle set off for Linz with their best line-up - including Salzburg loanee Lawrence Agyekum (20) and Kevin Denkey. The 23-year-old Togo striker has scored eleven goals in 22 competitive games this season and scored three times against St. Gallen. With a market value of around 20 million euros, Denkey is Cercle's hottest transfer target.
Schopp is aware of the Belgians' strengths. "This is a team that manages to bring great intensity to the pitch. We have to be prepared for that. We have to manage to keep our opponents busy ourselves. That will be the key to success." In principle, Schopp said, they are familiar with pressing soccer in Austria. "We know the coach, he already played intensively back then." Defensive player Melayro Bogarde was asked for his assessment of the comparison between the Belgian and Austrian leagues. "Both are very strong with good teams," said the Dutchman. "But it's a bit more intense in Austria."
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