If LASK had finished third in the Europa League group phase, moving to the play-off for the Conference League would have been rewarded with half a million euros. But that’s not all: After the draw in Nyon, the eliminated athletes will be doubly annoyed because they would have drawn a jackpot in this intermediate round (game dates February 15th and 22nd). The very attractive former club of Oliver Glasner, Eintracht Frankfurt, would have jumped out of the pot as an opponent.
Now the Belgian representative Union Saint-Gilloise can enjoy the Hessians, who made headlines a week ago with a 5-1 victory over FC Bayern.
SK Sturm didn’t draw the most attractive opponent, but one who fell into the “absolutely beatable” category. The Graz team will face the 16-time Slovakian champions and league leaders Slovan Bratislava. In the past, two Austrian clubs have overcome this hurdle – FC Salzburg in 2011/12 (3:0/h, 3:2/a) and Rapid in 2018/19 (1:2/a, 4:0/h).
See you once more with Kevin Wimmer
“We face a good opponent, but we want to turn these two games into several,” said Sturm’s sports director Andreas Schicker. Slovan, which plays its home games in the 22,500-seater “Tehelné pole” stadium, held OSC Lille 1-1 at home in the group phase of the Conference League.
The bottom line is that we came second with ten points (ahead of Olimpija Ljubljana and Klaksvik). In the middle of it all, instead of just being there, was a native of Wels, namely Kevin Wimmer, who moved from SK Rapid to Bratislava in the summer and matured into a regular player. The 31-year-old defender’s contract runs until 2026.
Bayern once morest Lazio
FC Bayern are spared Paris SG in the Champions League round of 16. The Munich team, who shone in the German Bundesliga on Sunday in a 3-0 win once morest Stuttgart (with Harry Kane’s 19th and 20th goals of the season), are facing Lazio Rome. Incidentally, Thomas Müller (34) has extended his contract with FCB for another year until 2025. RB Leipzig, the club of Xaver Schlager, Christoph Baumgartner and Nicolas Seiwald, meets Real Madrid – unfortunately without the injured David Alaba.
Author
Alexander Zambarloukos
Sports editor
Alexander Zambarloukos
