European Cup

A fine evening of football from a local perspective: SK Sturm Graz is in the round of 16 of the Conference League. A week after the 4-1 home win, the local soccer runner-up also prevailed in the second leg of the second round, celebrating a 1-0 (0-0) win at Slovan Bratislava on Thursday.

After a weak first half, Mika Biereth (52′), who had already been successful in the first leg, finally cleared things up with the only goal of the evening soon after the break. “They were a little better in the first half because they had more pressure phases. But then we scored the goal,” says David Affengruber, the Wieselburger in the Styrian team.

“Gregell” scores in the 99th minute

Michael Gregoritsch shot SC Freiburg into the round of 16 of the Europa League. The Styrian, who came on as a substitute in the second half when the score was 0-2 against RC Lens, was initially one of the main actors in Breisgauer’s comeback, before he scored the decisive goal in the 99th minute in the 3-2 win after extra time.

At Lens, the suspended Kevin Danso was missing from central defense. The first leg in northern France remained goalless. Philipp Lienhart was still missing from Freiburg due to injury, Junior Adamu was on the bench.

Lottery day in Switzerland

On Friday (1 p.m.) the opponent in the round of the best 16 will be determined in Nyon – there are duels with Lille, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Viktoria Plzen, FC Brugge, Aston Villa, Rapid conqueror Fiorentina, PAOK Saloniki or Fenerbahce Istanbul.

It is already Sturm’s greatest international success in 23 years when he made it into the second group phase of the Champions League, which was still being held at the time. Austria’s cup winner is also the second Austrian team in the round of 16; in the ECL premiere season two years ago, LASK also made it into the top 16 of the third highest UEFA competition.

Slovakian initial enthusiasm

On the last stretch of the way there, Ilzer chose a 4-2-2-2 as a tactical formation with Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Dimitri Lavalee as a double six in midfield. The recently injured Manprit Sarkaria and Jusuf Gazibegovic, like Tomi Horvat, initially sat on the bench, but Max Johnston and William Böving moved into the starting line-up.

“They had to suffer a lot today in a very intense game. They were at the end of their tether. Sturm-Coach Christian Ilzer

Slovan, in whose defense Austro legionnaire Kevin Wimmer once again worked, unsurprisingly tried to apply a lot of pressure right from the start and with a volley from Gerson Rodriguez over the goal (8th) and a dangerous finish from Juraj Kuckas (24th). The crossbar was close to making it 1-0.

The Slovakian record champions generally had significantly more control of the game over large parts of the first half than the Graz team, who were lurking on the counterattack but often made hectic mistakes and were once again very close to making it 1-0 shortly before the break thanks to David Strelec. Sturm goalie Vitezslav Jaros reacted brilliantly to the shot from short range (45th), Sturm escaped to the dressing room with a black eye.

Newcomer joins the net again

A good 25 minutes later, the Graz team, who had previously only recorded a harmless finish from Max Johnston (7th), closed the bag. After letting the last defender out, Biereth completed a counterattack perfectly and celebrated his third goal in the fifth game for the Blackys. A little later he almost negligently missed his fourth, but because he caught the ball poorly, goalkeeper Milan Borjan was able to intervene (61′).

Red after emergency brake

Slovan, who reached the ECL round of 16 in 2023, seemed shocked, but by no means gave up. And because Sturm also posed more danger offensively than in the first 45 minutes, 19,870 spectators in a good mood – including around 2,300 Graz fans – experienced a thoroughly entertaining end to the game despite the clear conditions. Sturm almost made it 2-0, but “Joker” Tomi Horvat was offside at the beginning of the final quarter of an hour (76th). In stoppage time, Slovan’s Cesar Blackman saw red after an emergency stop against Sarkaria.