After yesterday's defeat against league leaders Red Bull Salzburg Lask, the experts from Sturm Cross will additionally be motivated to win the Styria clash against TSV Hartberg. With a trio you'll be back on top and fuel your twin dreams.
Christian Ilzer could even celebrate two titles with Sturm this season.
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Almost two weeks ago, SK Sturm Cross suffered a serious setback in the race for the championship when they lost 0-1 in a clash against Red Bull Salzburg. The Styrians were five points behind the reigning Austrian champions from the city of Mozart. 13 days later, the situation looks completely different after the league leaders dropped points twice and the fight for the Bundesliga crown is back on. After Salzburg's 1:3 loss against Lask, the Grass team can bring real excitement to the remaining rounds by leveling with a home win in the Styria clash against Hartberg.
Master Group – 26th Competition Day
“We want and need to get points to stay close to Salzburg in the table,” striker William Bowing insisted at the start of the game, and will be hoping to bounce back at the end of the draw against the East Styrians. regular season. They have had anything but an easy time in the Championship group so far, conceding two painful defeats in the opening against Salzburg (1:5) and Rapid (0:3), Austria against Klagenfurt (2:2).
Sturm wants to inhabit his favorite role
Head coach Marcus Shapp's side are looking for their next win in five games. Despite these circumstances, Sturm coach Christian Ilzer will not underestimate the opponent in any way: “TSV Hartberg is a very dangerous and unpleasant opponent. You have to give a lot of respect to this team as a small club with limited opportunities, they made it. “Hartberg impresses with very good individual players and Probably Austria's strongest team, especially in their own half.”
Nevertheless, according to the Sturm coach, it's clear that “we go into this match as favourites, and we want to live up to this role as favourites”. In the last five duels against Hartberger, Sturm remained unbeaten in the Bundesliga for the first time, celebrating three wins and two draws. In addition, they did not concede more than one goal in these games and kept a clean sheet twice. Nevertheless, Ilzer expects “a very difficult game in which we want to give a great performance”. With Jan Gorenc Stankovic, an essential regular returns to the squad after his suspension. The Storm coach was also satisfied with his team's last few days: “We had a good week of training behind us and we used it. To work on the content in detail, to bring freshness back into people's minds and legs and repeat it.”
With this renewal, they now want to use Salzburg's “template” and build a head-to-head race for the title with three points. According to Bowing, an attacking force inspired by three goals and one assist in the last five competitive games, it is also important to make the most of the chances created: “Important compared to the last fight with Hartberg. We need Lask to be more accurate in front of the goal and take advantage of our chances, then we will go to Cross with three points in our luggage. Let's go.”
If it succeeds, the people in Styria's capital can literally dream of their first double win in 25 years. The fact that we have won seven of our first twelve away games this season and scored a goal in each of these 22 games for the first time in the club's history should be an incentive to take this dream one step further.
