The Champions League in sight

Even if you shouldn’t praise the day before the evening, women’s soccer series champion SKN St. Pölten can plan for the group stage of the Champions League for the second time in a row. After the 4-0 away win over Valur Reykjavik, nothing should go wrong in the NV Arena at home next Wednesday (7 p.m., ORF Sport+).

“This is a world-class starting position,” said coach Liese Brancao happily, from whose team two players stood out: firstly Rita Schumacher, the scorer of the 2-0 (53rd minute), who also prepared two more goals, and secondly the only 17-year-old ÖFB young team striker Valentina Mädl, who scored the 3-0 (59th) and 4-0 (63rd) scores. “The performance we did was simply unbelievable. We got into a flow a bit,” said 24-year-old captain Jennifer Klein after an intense match on artificial turf, in strong winds and temperatures around freezing point. After the final whistle there was little sleep: the landing in Schwechat took place at six in the morning.

A year ago, St. Pölten had to work much harder in the last qualifying round, and it was only at the end of extra time against Kuopio that the redeeming goal (from Mateja Zver/118th) came for promotion. It won’t be that close this time, you don’t need to be a prophet.

Financially, moving into the “premier class” would be a gain, even though the bonuses are only a fraction of those for men. In 2022/23, each participating club received 400,000 euros entry fee, 50,000 for a win in the group phase, 17,000 for a draw, 20,000 for first place. In its debut season in the Champions League, SKN St. Pölten scored four points (against Slavia Prague). VfL Wolfsburg and AS Roma were one size too big.