Sturm Graz - Club: the Club facts

This week another helping of European soccer is on the menu. Club travels to Klagenfurt, Austria, to meet Sturm Graz on the second matchday of the League Phase. Find out all the info on this affiche at the Champions Ball below.

The match

Club will travel to Klagenfurt, Austria, next week to face Sturm Graz on the second matchday of the UEFA Champions League Phase SK.

Some European stats for this match:

• It is Blue-Black's 363rd European match and the 154th for Sturm Graz.
• It is the 61st European match of a Belgian against an Austrian club.
• This is Blauw-Zwart's 98th match in the UEFA Champions League and the 64th from the group stage.
• This is Club's 11th UCL campaign (group stage) and Sturm Graz's 4th.

It is the first-ever European showdown between the two teams. Sturm Graz is the 134th unique opponent in Club Brugge's European history. Sturm is the fifth Austrian club Club Brugge has faced. In the past, it played these 13 matches against 4 other teams from the Alpine Republic. On Austrian soil, Club achieved 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats.

Club won 5 of its last 6 European matches against Austrian opponents. SK Sturm Graz played 4 European matches against Belgian teams in its history. It lost the last three duels, each time without being able to score itself.

Three players of Austrian origin once played in Blauw-Zwart (in the 60s and 70s). In addition, there is of course the best Austrian coach in Brugge history Ernst Happel, who won 3 titles, 1 cup and 2 European finals with Club.

Both Club Brugge and Sturm Graz did not have a successful opener at the renewed championship. Club Brugge went down 0-3 at home against losing finalist Borussia Dortmund (Ger). Jamie Gittens (2x) and Serhou Guirassy (pen) provided a somewhat exaggerated final score.

SK Sturm Graz lost 2-1 on the field of UCL debutant Stade Brest (Fra). An owngoal just before halftime allowed Sturm to erase the opening goal by Brest player Hugo Magnetti. But Abdallah Sima ensured the home victory. Belgian defender Dimitri Lavalée also collected a second yellow card and thus misses Wednesday's game with his compatriots. In the standings, Sturm Graz is now 22nd and Club Brugge 31st out of 36 participants.

Sturm Graz's most successful European campaign was in 2000-01 when they finished first in a UCL pool with Rangers FC (Sco), Galatasaray (Tur) and AS Monaco (Fra). Then the format was such that a 2nd UCL pool followed. In that, they finished third in a group with Valencia CF (Esp), Manchester United (Eng) and Panathinaikos (Gre). Furthermore, Sturm made it to the quarterfinals twice: in European Cup II in 1976 and in the 1984 UEFA Cup.

In three previous UCL campaigns, they finished first once (2000), third once (2000) and last once (1999). In the past 2 seasons, Sturm fell each time in the third preliminary round of the UCL. In 2022 it was against Dynamo Kyiv (Ukr) and in 2023 against PSV Eindhoven (Ned).

Hans Vanaken can play his 40th game in the Champions League on Wednesday (excluding preliminary rounds). He did not miss a single UCL match for Club from 2016 until now. It is the 7th UCL campaign for the midfielder. He played the most matches but is also the top shooter for Club at the championship ball. He can score his 10th UCL goal on Wednesday.

Against Borussia Dortmund, Club undertook no less than 18 goal attempts. That is Club's highest number ever in a UCL match. In the penultimate campaign of 2022-23, Club shot an average of only 8.6 goals per match.

Andreas Skov Olsen was involved in 6 of the 18 Blue-Black chances on the 1st UCL day of play. It was since Charles De Ketelaere in September 2021 against PSG that a Club player had been involved in so many chances.

The opponent

Sturm, alongside Grazer AK and Grazer SC, is one of three Austrian (former) first division clubs from Graz, a city in the southeastern part of Austria. The club was founded in 1909 and plays in black and white colors. Sturm celebrated 4 national titles (1998, 1999, 2011 and 2024) and raised the Austrian Cup 7 times (1996, 1997, 1999, 2010, 2018, 2023 and 2024).

"Die Schwoazn" (the blacks) normally play their home matches at the Merkur Arena in their own city. But because the 15,400-seat stadium does not meet UCL requirements, the club must divert 150km to Klagenfurt.

Club will play at the Wörthersee Stadium on Wednesday. The stadium, which can hold 41,000 spectators, was rebuilt in 2007 (original stadium dated from 1960) and was one of eight stadiums where the UEFA Euro 2008 (in Austria and Switzerland) was played.

Klagenfurt am Wörthersee is a city in southern Austria about 1,200km from Bruges. The university town is the capital of the state of Carinthia. With a hundred thousand inhabitants, it is the sixth largest city in the country. The city lies on a large lake, the Wörthersee.

2023-2024 was thus a grand-cru year for Sturm, as it captured the double. In the regular league, it finished second behind favorite RB Salzburg. At the start of the playoffs, as in Belgium, the points were halved and Sturm was still able to leapfrog over Salzburg. Only on the last day of play was it able to capture its fourth title.

Earlier in the month it had also won the cup by beating Rapid Wien 2-1 in the final. It was in Klagenfurt, where Wednesday's match continues, that Sturm celebrated its 7th cup.

In the UEL group stage, the club finished third behind later winners Atalanta BC (Ita) and Sporting Lisbon (Por). In the Conference League final stage, they eliminated Slovan Bratislava (Svk), but fell against France's Lille.

Top shooters last season were midfielders Tomi Horvat (Svn) and Otar Kiteishvili (Geo). Both players hit 11 goals. With 10 assists, Tomi Horvat was also the best player in that statistic.

After 8 playing days in the new season of the Austrian Bundesliga, SK Sturm Graz is the leader with 16 out of 24. First chasers are Rapid Wien (15pts) and the trio RB Salzburg, Wolfsberger AC and Blau-Weiß Linz (13pts).

Last Saturday, Sturm went on to win at season revelation Blau-Weiß Linz (1-2). An opening goal by Sturm attacker Mika Biereth was still erased, but Otar Kiteishvili was able to score the winning goal from the penalty spot after halftime.

Still, Sturm did not emerge unscathed: it lost defensive midfielder Jon Gorenc Stanković with an arm fracture. The Slovenian international is believed to be out for 10 weeks. With 3 assists, he was already important this season. Defender Gregory Wüthrich has also been out for several weeks with a hand injury. However, coach Ilzer was able to recover Scottish right back Max Johnston who remained on the sidelines injured for 2 matches.

In the 2nd round of the cup, Sturm advanced one round after a 1-3 win at SV Ried.

As Austrian champions, Sturm was directly qualified for the UCL League Stage. It has been since 2013 (when Austria Wien) that another Austrian club was active in the UCL group stage other than perennial favorite RB Salzburg.

Danish striker Mika Biereth could already score 5 times for Sturm this season. He shook the nets 4 times in the league and once in the cup. Biereth was rented from Arsenal FC (Eng) last winter and made the final transfer to Die Schwoazn this summer.

Coach of SK Sturm Graz is 46-year-old Austrian Christian Ilzer. He is already on his 5th season at Sturm. He worked only domestically at also Austria Wien, Wolfsberger AC, TSV Hartberg, Wiener Neustadt and SC Weiz. Under his leadership, Sturm won 1 national title and 2 cups.

Milestones

• Raphael Onyedika can play his 100th game for Club Brugge! The Nigerian can also play the 40th European match of his career (14 for FC Midtjylland and 25 for Club).
• Kyriani Sabbe can play his 40th match at Blauw-Zwart.
• Andreas Skov Olsen can play the 25th European match of his career (6 for FC Nordsjaelland and 18 for Club).

Referee

Azerbaijani Aliyar Agayev was designated ref for this game. He is assisted by his compatriots Zeynal Zeynalov and Akif Amirali (assistant refs) and Tural Kurbanov (fourth official). The VAR is Englishman David Coote, assisted by his compatriot Stuart Attwell. The UEFA referee observer is Bulgarian Itchko Lozev. The UEFA representative is Ukraine's Anna Bordiugova.

The 36-year-old ref from Baku has been whistling at the highest level in his own country since 2010. Since 2013, he has also been leading UEFA matches. He is a ref of the first UEFA category, the second highest level.

Agayev did not yet referee any Club Brugge matches, although he did lead a European match of a Belgian team 3 times before: in 2022, he was ref of a UEL match of Union at SC Braga (Por) and he led 2 UEL matches of KAA Gent (2021 against Raków Czestochowa (Pol) and in 2018 against FC Girondins de Bordeaux (Fra)).