3rd round Conference League – St. Gallen wants the first, Lugano the third – Sport

The FCSG will play against Larne on matchday 3 of the Conference League in Northern Ireland, Lugano will travel to Backa Topola (SRB).

Larne against St. Gallen is the duel in the Conference League between the teams that had the worst start to the new league system. The Northern Irish and the Eastern Swiss are still without a point and with 6 minus goals. St. Gallen is in 35th place in the 36er league with 4:10 goals, Larne is in last place with 1:7 goals.

The FCSG is currently in crisis. The 1-1 draw in the Super League last Saturday against FC Sion was the 8th game without a win. Despite the slump with 4 defeats and 4 draws since the 4-1 win against FC Zurich on September 24th, coach Enrico Maassen’s team is clearly favored against Larne.

First Northern Irish team in the European Cup

This is not least because the Northern Irish team has to play their European home games in Windsor Park, a good 30 kilometers away from Belfast. St. Gallen can now count on the support of around 2,000 fans who traveled with them on Thursday evening.

Larne FC, which has been run by city businessman Kenny Bruce since 2017, won its first league titles in the domestic Premiership in 2023 and 2024 and became 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, which has been coached by Tiernan Lynch since Bruce’s arrival, is 30-year-old Scottish center forward Andy Ryan, who has 9 goals in 20 competitive games.

Lugano’s supposedly easy game

FC Lugano also has an easy opponent on paper in Backa Topola. The Serbs, who will also play against St. Gallen at the end of November, are still without a point or a goal in the Conference League. They have lost the last 8 games in the European Cup and are in 9th place in the domestic SuperLiga after a weak start to the season and an improvement in the last few weeks.

For their part, the Ticino team, who prevailed against Backa Topola’s league rivals Partizan Belgrade on the way to the Conference League, won their first games against HJK Helsinki and Mlada Boleslav. They have not conceded a goal yet and are right at the top of the third-tier European competition.

The only competitive defeat for the second-placed team in the Super League since the 1:5 against Besiktas Istanbul at the end of August in the Europa League qualification was the 0:2 in Yverdon on October 20th.