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Sturm Graz – Club: Club facts

UEFA Champions League

And we're back in Europe this week, as Club makes its way to Klagenfurt in Austria to take on Sturm Graz on Match Day 2 of the CL League Phase.  

The Fixture

Some stats and figs ahead of this game:

  • This will be the 363rd time Club plays in Europe, whereas Sturm Graz will be in its 154th game.
  • For the 61st time, a Belgian team will meet with an Austrian competitor.
  • The game is Club's 98th in the UEFA Champions League, and its 64th in the Group Stages.
  • So far, Club has been in 11 UCL campaigns, whereas Sturm Graz only has four.

The two teams will be crossing swords for the very first time, making Sturm Graz the 134th unique opponent for Club, and the 5th Austrian team picking up the gauntlet against Club. In 7 previous games on Austrian turf, Club won twice, suffered four defeats and draw once.

The past six European encounters against an Austrian adversary ended in 5 wins for Club. SK Sturm Graz played four European games against Belgian competitors so far, unable to score in the last three duels, which they all lost.

Club Brugge has had three players with Austrian nationality in its rich past, and of course there was Ernst Happel, helping Club to 3 titles, 1 Cup, and 2 European Finals.

The two teams took a false start in this CL campaign. Club went down 0-3 against last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund, Jamie Gittens (2x) and Serhou Guirassy (pen) taking care of the German goals.

In its opener against Stade Brest (Fra), SK Sturm Graz managed to cancel out Magnetti's opener through an own-goal just before half-time, but Abdallah Sima made sure the home team came out on top (2-1). Belgian defender Dimitri Lavalée conceded a second yellow, meaning he misses out on the game against his compatriots. In the table, Sturm Graz currently holds 22nd place, and Club Brugge is in 31st place (out of 36).

Sturm Graz had a great CL run back in 2001, when it topped a group with Rangers FC (Sco), Galatasaray (Tur) and AS Monaco (Fra). In that year's format a second group phase followed, in which it was set up with Valencia CF (Esp), Manchester United (Eng) and Panathinaikos (Gre), coming in third. Other striking results in Europe show two Quarter Finals: Europacup II in 1976 and UEFA Cup in 1984.

Three earlier UCL campaigns saw the team end in first (2000), third (2000) and in last place (1999). The last two seasons saw an Austrian demise in the third preliminaries: at the hands of Dynamo Kyiv (Ukr) in 2022 and one year later against PSV Eindhoven (Neth).

Not counting preliminaries, Hans Vanaken is up for a 40th UCL appearance, having not missed a single encounter with Club since 2016, so this is the 7th UCL campaign for Club's legendary midfielder. Not only has he played the most UCL games, he is also the team's top scorer with nine goals so far.

No fewer than 18 times did Club try its luck against Borussia Dortmund, the highest number of opportunities Club has ever had in a UCL game. The average in last season's campaign was just 8.6 per game.

Industrious as ever, Andreas Skov Olsen was involved in 6 out of those 18 chances for Club. We would have to go back to Charles De Ketelaere back in September 2021 against PSG to see a player at Club so involved.

The opponent

The town of Graz harbours three (former) first division teams in Austria: Sturm, Grazer AK and Grazer SC. Sturm Graz was founded in 1909, and plays in black and white. The team has won the championship on four occasions (1998, 1999, 2011 and 2024) and lifted the Austrian Cup 7 times (1996, 1997, 1999, 2010, 2018, 2023 and 2024).

"Die Schwoazn" (the black ones) tend to play their home games at their own Merkur Arena, but with the stadium not living up to the UCL standards, the team plays its European games 150km off in Klagenfurt. The venue will be the Wörtherseestadium, capable of welcoming 41,000 fans. The stadium, built in 2007, was one of the 8 stadiums of UEFA Euro 2008 (in Austria and Switzerland).

Klagenfurt am Wörthersee lies some 1,200 km from Bruges in the South of Austria. It is a university town, and the capital of Carinthia. It is the 6th biggest town of the country, with 100,000 inhabitants. The city is by a big lake, the Wörthersee.

What a year 2024 has been for Sturm Graz: not only did it win the league at the expense of RB Salzburg, but it also managed to win the Cup by beating Rapid Wien 2-1  in the Final. In the Europa League, it ended third behind later winners Atalanta BC (Ita) and Sporting Lisbon (Por); referred to the Conference League, they ousted Slovan Bratislava (Svk), but were overcome by Lille (Fra).

Last season's top scorers were midfielders Tomi Horvat (Svn) and Otar Kiteishvili (Geo), both finding their way to the nets 11 times. Tomi Horvat also helped his colleagues to ten goals with an assist.

Eight match days into the new season, SK Sturm Graz lead the pack with 16 points, one point ahead of Rapid Wien, and 3 ahead of RB Salzburg, Wolfsberger AC and Blau-Weiß Linz. On Saturday, Sturm beat season's revelation Blau-Weiß Linz (1-2), with the winner from the spot by Otar Kiteishvili in the second half. Still, the team did not come unscathed from the trip to Linz, losing out on defensive midfielder Jon Gorenc Stanković (arm fracture), with a probable unavailability of 10 weeks. Stanković had proven important so far, with three assists to his name. Also out is defender Gregory Wüthrich. Back from injury is Scottich right back Max Johnston.

Winning the Austrian league, Sturm earned a direct ticket to the UCL League Stage. For the first time since 2013, a different Austrian team than regulars RB Salzburg features in the UCL. 

Danish forward Mika Biereth has been of the industrious kind so far at Sturm, having scored five so far (4 league, 1 Cup). Biereth joined from Arsenal FC (Eng) on loan last Winter, only to join the team indefinitely in Summer.

SK Sturm Graz' coach is 46 year old Christian Ilzer (Aus), in his 5th season at Sturm. Earlier Austrian stints saw him work at Austria Wien, Wolfsberger AC, TSV Hartberg, Wiener Neustadt and SC Weiz. Under his management, Sturm has won the league once and added two Austrian Cups to its prize cabinet.

Milestones

  • Raphael Onyedika is up for a 100th game at Club, and could be featuring in Europe for the 40th time (14 while at FC Midtjylland and 25 at Club).
  • Kyriani Sabbe could be playing a 40th game at Blue and Black.
  • For Andreas Skov Olsen, this could be the 25th European game (6 for FC Nordsjaelland, 18 for Club).

The Man in Black

An Azerbeidjan referee for the game in Austria: Mr. Aliyar Agayev has been appointed for the tie, along with his fellow compatriotsMr. Zeynal Zeynalov and Mr. Akif Amirali (assistant refs) and Mr. Tural Kurbanov (fourth official). In charge of VAR will be Mr. David Coote (Eng), backed by Mr. Stuart Attwell. UEFA referee observer will be Mr. Itchko Lozev (Bulg), while Mrs. Anna Bordiugova (Ukr) will be representing UEFA.

The 36-year old ref from Baku has been handling the whistle at the highest level in his country since 2010, and has been appointed UEFA games since 2013. 

No games featuring Club for Mr. Agayev so far, but he was in charge of three other encounters including Belgian teams: in 2022 for Union vs SC Braga (Por), and in 2021 during KAA Gent - Raków Czestochowa, and in in 2018 for KAA Gent - FC Girondins de Bordeaux (Fra)).