Football runner-up LASK is in the play-off of the qualification for the Champions League. Six days after the 2:1 away win at FC Basel, the Linz team beat the former ÖFB team boss Marcel Koller’s Swiss team at home on Tuesday 3:1 (0:0) thanks to goals from Reinhold Ranftl (59), Thomas Goiginger (89) and Marko Raguz (94) and won the ticket for the final qualifying phase.
The final hurdle on the way to the million-dollar group stage is Club Bruges, which eliminated Dynamo Kiev. The first leg in Linz will take place next Tuesday, and on 28 August coach Valerien Ismael’s squad will be in Bruges.
“An indescribable feeling. I can only thank the team. We expected Basel to exert pressure, we remained calm. You can’t defend everything. In the second half, we tactically corrected that, got better access, also got into the counter-attacks and were then ice-cold,” cheered LASK coach Valerien Ismael after the final whistle.
“This is the highlight of my coaching career, I hope more will come. If you win once, it may be luck, but if you win twice, a total of 5:2, it’s quality. We have proven that we can keep up with any opponent,” the Frenchman said.
Central defender Emanuel Pogatetz did not spare any superlatives either: “This is definitely a highlight for the club. We’ve worked hard to make this happen and we’ve made good progress. We threw it all in for 90 minutes.”
For the England regional, his team’s leap in quality is unmistakable: “We have learned a lot from last year, we are maturing and getting better and better. We need to stay on it and see what’s possible. Basel was lucky too, but it was balanced.” After-sentence: “At the end we saw what can be achieved with passion and courage.”
