Rapid Vienna will not be expecting any favours from the Portuguese giants, FC Porto, when the two meet tonight in Europe. Porto have already qualified for the next stage of the competition and will therefore be much more relaxed. They are expected to rest
several of their first team players at Ernst-Happel Stadion.
Steffen Hofmann, the Rapid Vienna player, was certain that things were not going to be easy. He said while speaking to reporters,
“You have got to be honest and say that Porto are the strongest team we have played in recent years. Even if they rest key players, those who do play have enough quality. That is not going to be any advantage for us.”
Rapid themselves are expected to be weakened significantly, they have quite a few important players missing. Apart from that, Rapid coach Peter Pacult seems to have lost all hop of his side making it to the knock out stages of the competition. The Austrian
side need a win or at least a draw to have a chance of moving forward, but even then they will be depending on Besiktas losing to CSKA Sofia.
Pacult will have to do without many key players who are sidelined because of injury. The most notable are Jan Vennegoor, Thomas Hinum, Markus Katzer, Hannes Eder and Hofmann himself. When asked if he could return to feature in Europe, Hofmann replied,
“There is still a very small chance, but a lot would have to happen for it to work out.”
To add to the long list of injuries, Yasin Pehlivan and Veli Kavlak both picked up minor injuries during last week’s 1-0 victory over Austria Vienna. Even if they return for tonight’s game, it is understood that both players will not be able to play the
whole game. It would be wise for Pacult to start the players on the bench and then bring them on in the second half.
Possible starting line-ups:
Rapid Vienna: Hedl; Kayhan, Soma, Sonnleitner, Dober; Pehlivan, Heikkinen, Drazan, Saurer, Trimmel; Salihi.
FC Porto: Helton; Sapunaru, Otamendi, Ronaldo, Fucile; Fernando, Micael, Moutinho, Hulk, Silvestre Var; Falcao.
Tags: