Keystone
The Swiss Conference League contenders go into Thursday’s game away from home as favorites. St. Gallen want to finally win again in Northern Ireland, while Lugano are aiming for their third victory in Serbia.
FCSG, who are without a win in eight competitive games, face Larne in Belfast at 21:00. Lugano’s opponents in the north of Serbia are TSC Backa Topola at 18:45.
Larne versus St. Gallen is the clash of the worst teams to start the new league system. Both are still without a point and have conceded six goals. St. Gallen are 35th in the 36-team league with 4:10 goals, while Larne are bottom with 1:7 goals.
St. Gallen’s way out of the slump
Despite the 2:6 fiasco in the first away game against Cercle Brugge and the recent slump with four defeats and draws since the 4:1 win against FC Zurich on 24 September, St. Gallen are clear favourites, especially as their opponents from the port town of Larne have to play their European home games at Windsor Park in Belfast, a good 30 kilometers away, and the St. Gallen ensemble of coach Enrico Maassen can count on the support of around 2,000 fans from eastern Switzerland on Thursday evening.
Larne FC, which has been funded by city businessman Kenny Bruce since 2017, won its first league titles in the domestic Premiership in 2023 and 2024 and was the first Northern Irish club to qualify for the league or group stage of a European Cup competition. The most dangerous player in the team coached by Tiernan Lynch since Bruce joined is 30-year-old Scottish center forward Andy Ryan, who has scored nine goals in 20 competitive games.
Lugano’s supposedly easy game
On paper, FC Lugano also have a supposedly easy game at Backa Topola. The Serbs, who also play St. Gallen at the end of November, are still without a point or a goal in the Conference League. They have lost their last eight games in the European Cup and, after a weak start to the season and an improvement in recent weeks, are only 9th in the domestic SuperLiga.
For their part, the Ticino side, who beat Backa Topola’s league rivals Partizan Belgrade on their way to the Conference League, have won their opening games against HJK Helsinki and Mlada Boleslav, are yet to concede a goal and are therefore among the frontrunners in Europe’s third-tier competition. The Super League runners-up’s only competitive defeat since the 5-1 loss to Besiktas Istanbul in the Europa League qualifiers at the end of August was 2-0 in Yverdon on October 20.
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