Ella Touon and Leonarda Balog made their comeback in the 62nd minute of the 2-1 league home win against Altach on Sunday, while Sarah Mattner came on as a substitute in the 78th minute. The trio could therefore get minutes on Thursday after missing the first leg due to injury. “The girls will play a maximum of 45 minutes, we won’t take any big risks,” said St. Pölten coach Liese Brancao.
All three are not an issue for the starting eleven. As a result, the team, which is still undefeated in the league and is still missing Isabelle Meyer, Mateja Zver, Jennifer Klein, Claudia Wenger and Izabela Krizaj, is almost getting back on its own. “The situation is still critical, but at least we have more options for the second half when the air runs out a bit,” said Brancao. Internally, she tries to talk about the topic as little as possible. “Because that doesn’t help anyone. We can’t change it and we have to deal with it.”
“She-wolves” set sales records
In front of a record crowd, women's champions St. Pölten will challenge FC Barcelona in the UEFA Women's Champions League on Thursday. So far, 7,300 tickets have been sold – more than ever before for a domestic game at club level.
Brancao does it similarly
Compared to the appearance in Spain, she announced “at most one change”. This means that some players will not be in demand in their usual positions, such as Kamila Dubcova as a central defender in a five-man chain. “We will definitely do something similar. We can't do much else, because if you attack Barca high, you'll quickly get so many goals again,” said the Brazilian, describing her view.
GEPA/Kevin Hackner
At the Estadi Johan Cruyff, a deep SKN defensive block kept the score at zero for more than half an hour – until Ewa Pajor made it 1-0 (32'). That was the beginning of the end, four more goals were conceded from minute 38 to 45. “It's important that we can defend better for longer because the first 35 minutes were really good, and I also think there were some very good things in the second half. But we can’t sleep for two minutes, otherwise three goals will happen,” explained Brancao.
Women's Champions League
Schedule and tables
The first leg was broken down again in the analysis. “We have to defend the important spaces where they are really dangerous a little more cleverly. And after winning the ball, we lost the ball too quickly, and we definitely want to do both better.” If a goal were to be conceded, it would also be important to slow down the game in order to prevent another Barca avalanche of goals. “It will be difficult, but we will do everything we can to upset Barca,” said Brancao.
Record attendance beckons
At least St. Pölten, which has no points in the premier class this season, already has one win in its pocket. The scenery will be better than the first leg, which was watched by 2,586 fans. There are many indications that the attendance record for a women's club game in Austria will be broken.
7,278 fans watched Rapid's 4-1 test defeat against the U20s of 1. FC Nürnberg on June 16th. “It's great that so many spectators come. We know it’s because of Barcelona, but it will push us and is definitely extra motivation.”
