FCSG need to beat Backla Topola in divisional league

FC St. Gallen need to win tonight's home league match against Bakatopola (the game kicks off at 6:45pm) to stay in the knockout rounds.

St Gallen kept their hopes of advancing to the last 16 alive with an away win over mediocre Larne in Belfast. Despite two early failures, anything is possible.

However, the rest of the eastern Swiss plan is steep. After Baca Topola, the Portuguese from Vitoria Guimarães (home) and Bundesliga club Heidenheim (away) will be the last opponents in the league stage in December. Of the three, Baka Topola is the easiest opponent on paper.

Stanic (left) celebrates the 1-0 win over Lugano. He is Topola's top scorer with six goals.Image: trapezoid

However, the Serbs proved their quality with a 4-1 win against Lugano in the last round. The team, based near the Hungarian border, had failed to convince this season until this surprising home win. In terms of domestic leagues, the team that ranked third last season is currently only 10th in the European Cup; before facing Lugano, there are four games against Maccabi Tel Aviv, Astana and Legia Warsaw. Lose.

Gobert will be out until the end of the year

St Gallen's chances of winning at home for the first time in more than a decade in the Europa League or in the group stages seemed ideal. The prerequisite for this is that the team's attacking speed is faster than the 0-0 draw with Yverdon at the weekend. Eight-time goalscorer Willem Gubers is injured there and the Frenchman could be out until the end of the year.

“We have to play more purposefully and we have to be more efficient,” coach Enrico Masson demanded before the game against Barca Topola. Over the past decade, Baka Topola has made his way from the depths of Serbian football to the European Cup. Maassen said of a team with strong pressure and good individual talent: “The forwards are really busy and their positional play is very versatile.”

Possible lineups for FC St. Gallen: Ziggy; van der Mersch, Valch, Stanich, Okoroji; Görtler, Quintilla, Witzig; Thoma; Akolo, Manbibi.

Lugano continues to maintain a good starting position

FC Lugano, who are joint first in the Superliga standings with FC Basel, will be looking to forget the mistake they made three weeks ago against Bakatopola at home to FC Gent in Thun. The Belgians, who include 22-year-old former Swiss youth national team player Franck Surdez, have, like Ticino, won two of their first three games in the Confederation League.

With another success, Lugano will almost certainly advance to the knockout rounds and can focus on finishing in the top 8 and thus directly into the last 16. Mattia Croce-Totti's side face Legia Warsaw away to Legia Warsaw and Cypriots Paphos in Thun in their final two games of the league phase. These are tasks that Lugano can solve. (Random Access Memory/SDA)

Zug will lose its best coach in history, Dan Tangnes, at the end of the season. No problem: a coaching change is an opportunity to change the style and return to historical roots.

Led by manager Patrick Lengwiler, sporting director Reto Kläy and coach Dan Tangnes, EV Zug has become a model for high-displacement hockey companies. Perfect organization on the ice corresponds perfectly to tactics off the ice. A cup win and two championship titles were well-deserved rewards. Under the leadership of Hans-Peter Strebel and his management team, the people of Zug have never experienced better economic and sporting times. No other club management has had so much control over everything in recent years. Maybe even almost too controlled.