FC Lugano open the European Cup season from a Swiss perspective. On Tuesday, the Ticino side will host Fenerbahce Istanbul in the 2nd qualifying round for the Champions League. Coach Matti-Croci-Torti is particularly looking forward to the clash with star coach José Mourinho.
22.07.2024, 19:14
22.07.2024, 19:25
SDA
On Tuesday evening, FC Lugano will play the first of at least three games in Thun. The runners-up in last season's Super League chose the Bernese Oberland for their exile after the stadiums in St. Gallen and Zurich had to stand in for the Cornaredo at home in previous European Cup years.
The Luganesi will not enjoy the same level of support, at least for their first appearance as a home team in the Stockhorn Arena in Thun. Although almost all of the 6000 tickets available have already been sold, around 5000 have gone to Fenerbahce fans traveling from the surrounding area, according to a report in the Thuner Tagblatt. The fact that the guest sector has to remain closed at the behest of UEFA is therefore of no consequence. The 19-time Turkish champions will not be short of supporters.
A few days after the start of the Super League season, a mammoth task awaits Lugano if they are to stay in the Champions League - and then have to go for their next exploit against French side Lille. The road to the group stage of the top flight is a rocky one.
"Maybe something like this will never happen again in our lifetime"
Lugano coach Mattia Croci-Torti wants to draw courage from the underdog role, as he emphasized at the press conference: "Fenerbahçe has its whole life to lose, whereas Lugano wants to fulfill a dream".
In fact, the Ticino side can look forward to the encounter with Fenerbahce with a certain amount of ease. The visitors, who are playing their first competitive match under new coach José Mourinho, have the pressure.
For Croci-Torti, the Portuguese, who made his international breakthrough with Porto in 2004, is a great role model: "He is a coach who knows how to get into the players' heads and who manages to achieve extraordinary things." He is looking forward to the duel with the star coach: "Maybe something like this will never happen again in my lifetime."
As the championship in Turkey does not start for more than three weeks, Fenerbahce have had to intensify their recent preparations. This seems to have worked well, with clear test match victories against England's second division side Hull City (5:1) and France's Ligue 1 club Strasbourg (4:0).
Artificial turf as an advantage?
"Tomorrow's game is doubly important. We're playing on artificial turf and at home and must try to get a positive result because we know the environment we'll find in Turkey, we already experienced it last year," said Croci-Torti, who faced Besiktas Istanbul with Lugano in the Conference League.
His protégé Mattia Bottani does not know whether the Thun exile will help with the mission: "The artificial turf is always an unknown - the pitch changes the game completely compared to normal grass. We don't know whether it will be in our favor or not."
The group stages in the Europa League or the Conference League seem more realistic. The math is simple: three wins in qualifying means Champions League, two Europa League, one Conference League and none means an early exit from the European Cup.
Livakovic, Tadic and Dzeko
Lugano have one serious match ahead of the Turks and can be satisfied with this one. They beat Grasshoppers 2-1 in their league opener on Saturday and, on paper at least, the task against Fenerbahce looks more demanding than the one against GC.
Mourinho's team includes eight European Championship players, among them Serbian playmaker Dusan Tadic, Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic and Turkish defender Mert Müldür, who scored the goal of the tournament with his volley against Georgia at the European Championship. The 38-year-old Edin Dzeko, who scored twice against Hull City on Thursday, is likely to start up front.
