Seeking to overturn a one-goal first-leg deficit, Trabzonspor travel to Austria to face Rapid Vienna in the second leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie on Thursday evening.
The winners of this tie on aggregate will progress to the playoff round to face either Braga or Servette later this month.
Match preview
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Rapid Vienna are on course to reach the Europa League proper for the third time in five seasons after Lukas Grgic's second-half strike secured a hard-fought 1-0 first-leg victory against Trabzonspor in Turkey last Thursday.
Head coach Robert Klauss believes that his side "achieved a great victory by completely sticking to the plan", although he admitted after the match that he was somewhat 'surprised' by Trabzonspor's lineup.
Success in Turkey made it five wins from five for the Green-Whites across all competitions at the start of the new season, but their 100% record has since come to an end as they were forced to play out a 1-1 away draw with Austria Klagenfurt in their second match of the Austrian Bundesliga on Sunday.
Rapid Vienna's Moritz Oswald cancelled out a third-minute opener from Ben Bobzien, but a match-winning goal ultimately eluded Klauss's side, despite the hosts going down to 10 men shortly after half time.
Their attention now shifts to Thursday's second-leg clash with Trabzonspor, with the Green-Whites aware that they require at least a draw to advance to the playoff round and move one step closer to securing their place in the newly-expanded 2024-25 Europa League.
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Abdullah Avci has managed over 150 games across two spells in charge of Trabzonspor, but he now finds himself under mounting pressure to keep his job following protests from the club's supporters just four competitive games into the new season.
Trabzonspor's disappointing defeat to Rapid Vienna last week was followed by a frustrating 0-0 draw with Sivasspor in their opening Turkish Super Lig fixture of the 2024-25 campaign on Sunday, a game in which they registered just two of their 16 attempts on target.
Chants of "Avci resign" were heard from the supporters of the Trabzon-based outfit after the full-time whistle, while the agent of forward Umut Bozok has since hit out at the 61-year-old boss, claiming that he is "a complete career-ender" for players and "not a coach".
Nevertheless, Avci has vowed to "never give up" and intends to "use these criticisms in a beneficial way", with his immediate priority now Thursday's must-win contest versus Rapid Vienna.
Trabzonspor face an uphill task to reach the main stage of a European competition for just the fifth time in the last 14 years, last doing so in 2022-23 when they competed in the Europa League group stage before dropping into the playoff round of the Conference League.
Team News
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Rapid Vienna are still unable to call upon the services of Thierry Gale, Ismail Seydi, Ferdy Druijf and Bernhard Zimmermann as they all continue to recover from knee injuries, while new signing Jakob Scholler is yet to make his debut and remains a fitness doubt.
Oswald scored as a midfielder in the draw with Austria Klagenfurt last time out, but he could move back into his favoured right-back role at the expense of Bendeguz Bolla, with Mamadou Sangare handed a recall in the middle of the pitch.
Augsburg loanee Dion Beljo and 35-year-old Guido Burgstaller have both scored three goals so far this season and are expected to partner each other up front, with the latter coming into the first XI to replace teenager Furkan Dursun.
As for Trabzonspor, Bozok, Maxi Gomez, Mislav Orsic, Taxiarchis Fountas and Huseyin Turkmen are among a number of ineligible players who have not been selected in their Europa League qualifying squad.
Summer signing Stefan Savic was forced off with a muscle injury in last weekend's draw with Sivasspor and is unlikely to feature on Thursday, with either Batista Mendy, Rayyan Baniya or Ali Sahin Yilmaz potentially taking his place in central defence.
Fellow new recruits John Lundstram and Ozan Tufan both began as substitutes last time out, but could be recalled at the expense of Okay Yokuslu and Enis Bardhi respectively, while Denis Dragus is expected to lead the line.
Rapid Vienna possible starting lineup:
Hedl; Oswald, Cvetkovic, Raux-Yao, Auer; Sangare, Grgic; Jansson, Seidl; Burgstaller, Beljo
Trabzonspor possible starting lineup:
Cakir; Malheiro, Mendy, Denswil, Elmali; Tufan, Lundstram; Visca, Canak, Trezeguet; Dragus
We say: Rapid Vienna 1-1 Trabzonspor (Rapid Vienna to win 2-1 on aggregate)
Trabzonspor were considered the favourites for this tie prior to the first leg, but Rapid Vienna admirably held their own in Turkey and deservedly enter the reverse fixture with a slender advantage.
The Turkish visitors must win if they wish to advance to the playoff round, but as they are not quite firing on all cylinders at present, we can see Rapid Vienna claiming at least a share of the spoils to progress on aggregate.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
