St Gallen? I hear you say. Surely, we should be playing our opening Europa League Group A match away to FC Zurich in, well, Zurich, and not in a city 50 miles to the east in a different canton? It is rather like Real Madrid turning up to play us in Southend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, dear reader, Stadion Letzigrund, the mussel shell-shaped stadium that FCZ shares with arch-rivals Grasshoppers, does triple duty as an athletics track and a concert venue, too. The Weltklasse Zurich track and field meet that serves as the final of the Diamond League already had the date booked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heart of Midlothian also had to play their Europa League playoff away leg against FCZ in St Gallen. In their case, it was because of a sold-out gig by Gola & Trauffer, the popular Bernese-German rockers \u2014 do try to keep up, old people. Other local residents to have sung there include Tina Turner, a Swiss national since 2013 and whose estate overlooks the pristine waters of Lake Zurich. The Stones, Guns N’ Roses and Metalica have all made tour stops there over the years. Ipswich Town-sponsor Ed Sheeran will be playing two shows in the week of the group round two matches. Fortunately for FCZ, it is away to Bod\u00f8\/Glimt then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
St Gallen’s Kybunpark, like Letzigrund, is a compact, solar-powered stadium built for the 2008 Euros. It takes its name from one of FC St Gallen’s sponsors, the eponymous local maker of health shoes and rehab and orthopaedic kit for those gone in the fetlock or at risk of musculoskeletal injury. Kybunpark claims bragging rights as the largest stadium in eastern Switzerland, having, at 19,568 seats, some 3,000 more than Letzigrund, even though the Zurich stadium has the larger overall capacity when safe standing, allowed in domestic Swiss games, is taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have not played FCZ before, and it is four decades since we played any side from the city of FIFA, financiers and other miscreants posing as prosperous citizens of one of Europe\u2019s staidest cities. In November 1971, we beat Grasshoppers 2-0 in the second round of the European Cup, when they still played in Zurich’s now demolished Hardturm stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grasshoppers, founded in 1886 by alums of Manchester Grammar School, are Zurich’s blue bloods, but FCZ is its blue-collar cub. It dates its founding to August 1, 1896, by when we were about to embark on our fourth season in the Football League. I say ‘dates’ purposefully. Members of three local clubs, Turicum (named after the Roman name for the city), Excelsior and Viktoria, started playing together that year and retroactively decided they had created their new club on that particular Monday, which coincidentally came to be celebrated as Switzerland’s National Day. One of those founding members was Joan Gamper, who would later be a founder of Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FCZ’s first Swiss championship arrived in 1902. The second took another 22 years. The third would not come until 1963. However, the Sixties and Seventies proved fruitful years for FCZ, with six league titles and five Swiss Cups. With domestic silverware came European football, most notably, two runs to the semi-finals of the old European Cup in 1964 and 1977, when it took Real Madrid and Liverpool, respectively, to stop them. In all, the club has played more than 150 European games, winning one-third of them. It last made the knockout stages of the Europa League in 2018-19, the same season it ended two places off relegation in the Swiss Super League, as it did again in 2019-20 and then one place off relegation in 2020-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having turned that run on its head to win its 13th title last season, pipping Basel, captained by Granit Xhaka’s elder brother, Taulant, FCZ has taken the long way round to this season’s Europa League group stage. Eliminated from the Champions League by Qarabag 5-4 on aggregate after extra time in the second qualifying round, they dropped into the Europa League’s third qualifying round, where they beat Linfield 5-0 on aggregate and then disposed of Hearts 3-1 on aggregate in the playoff round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Title-delivering head coach Andr\u00e9 Breitenreiter moved to Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga in the close season. The arrival of Franco Foda, previously the Austria national team coach, has brought a dramatic turn of league fortunes for the worse: two points from seven games, with four goals scored and 16 conceded. Last Sunday\u2019s 1-2 home defeat by Lugano only lifted them off the bottom of the table on goal difference as fellow cellar-dwellers FC Winterthur lost by a larger margin. We should not put too much stock in league form: in domestic and European cup ties games this season, FCZ has lost only one in seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foda has flip-flopped on formations. He switched recently from 4-2-3-1 to a back three but appears not to have settled on a trio in front of 6’5″ skipper and local lad Yanick Brecher in goals. Perm three from the sextet of Kosovo internationals Fidan Aliti and Mirlind Kryeziu, Kosovan-born Switzerland U-20 international Lindrit Kamberi, Estonia international Karol Mets, Nikola Katic, the Croatian newly arrived from Glasgow Rangers and the highly rated 20-year-old Becir Omeragic. Geneva-born of Bosnian parents, Omeragic has already played more than 90 senior games for the club despite missing a chunk of last season with an ACL injury from which he is only slowly returning. He has won four Swiss caps, having been hurried into the team to fend off Bosnia claiming him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adrian Guerrero, picked up on a free from Valencia B and Nikola Boranijasevic, also a free, from Lausanne, provide the width in midfield either side of summer signings, Guinea international Cheick Conde and Ole Selnaes, a former Norway international who was playing in China. Veteran German DM Marc Hornschuh may be drafted in if Foda opts to play five in midfield as he did against Hearts in the second leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up front, goals have been in short supply. Last season’s top scorer, Assan Ceesay, departed for Lecce. His replacement at centre-forward, Nigerian-born Benin international Aiyegun Tosin, has hit five this season in 12 appearances in all competitions. Two much-travelled summer signings, Croatian striker Ivan Santini and German-born Kosovo international winger Donis Avdijaj, have two apiece, as has centre-back Kryeziu and veteran Swiss international Blerim Dzemaili and fellow midfielder Fabian Rohner coming off the bench. <\/strong>Striker Wilfried Gnonto, the 18-year-old with four Italy caps to his name after being let go on a free by Inter two seasons ago (it is not just us that do such things), will not be adding to his tally for FCZ. Leeds United has just bought the starlet for 4.5 million euros. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Thursday-Sunday routine now underway, Arteta will draw on our squad depth, although with ESR joining Elneny and Partey off games, his midfield rotation options are limited. Hoping against hope that Arteta resists his instinct to play Saka in every game and holds \u00d8degaard and Zinchenko back for Sunday\u2019s Everton game, I hazard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turner<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomiyasu Holding Gabriel Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lokonga Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marquinhos Vieira Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nketiah<\/p>\n\n\n\n With 12 subs allowed, pretty much everyone else from the first-team squad who is fit will be on the bench, plus a handful of youngsters, such as Zane Monlouis, Catalin Cirjan, Amario Cozier-Duberry, and Matt Smith, who could conceivably start and will likely get some minutes. Arteta should try to get as many of his Sunday starters off as early as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet we need to get straight back on the horse after the setback at Old Trafford. Nor will Arteta want to drop points against the weakest team in the group. We need to top the table to go straight into the knockout stage and avoid a playoff round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FCZ has enough Balkan backbone to make a scrap of it. Regardless, we should have the calibre and depth to roll the Swiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ‘holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The gentlemen of the turf have us as firm favourites and require us to score four without reply before offering score-betting odds above tens. Chancers in the bar might be tempted by 5-0 at 30s, but 3-0 at eights seems more realistic, or, for those harbouring doubts about Matt Turner, 3-1 at elevens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy being back in Europe, ‘holics near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St Gallen? I hear you say. Surely, we should be playing our opening Europa League Group A match away to FC Zurich in, well, Zurich, and not in a city 50 miles to the east in a different canton? It is rather like Real Madrid turning up to play us in Southend. Well, dear reader, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6635,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625\/revisions\/6635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}