ANDIf they win the tie, Sporting de Braga advances to the league stage of the third UEFA club competition, being the second Portuguese team to reach it, after Vitória de Guimarães, in 2024/25, but if they are eliminated they will say goodbye early to this season’s European competitions.
After eliminating Zeleznicar Pancevo, with two victories, 1-0, in Serbia, and 4-0, at home, in the second leg of the qualifying round of the third UEFA competition, and Dinamo Minsk, in the third preliminary round, with a 1-0 home victory and a 0-0 draw away, the Minho team have the Austrian team as the last obstacle on their journey.
The ‘arsenalistas’, who have the second leg of the play-off scheduled for August 27th, in Vienna, reach the fifth game of the European qualification with six goals scored and without conceding any, while, internally, they conceded two in the draw with Moreirense for the opening round of the I League.
On the eve of hosting, at 8pm, the fourth-placed team in the last Austrian championship, the Sporting de Braga squad is still recovering from a gastrointestinal outbreak that led to the postponement of the meeting with Gil Vicente, in the second round of the I League.
Still without an explanation for the situation of infections that plagued a large part of the team and staff, the Braga fans made it known that the symptoms prevented the affected players from using for a period of 48 to 72 hours, but opened up room for recovery for the game with the Austrians.
Austria Vienna arrives in Braga encouraged by the 2-0 victory against Hartberg, the first after three rounds in the Austrian League, in which they remain in eighth place, with three points, six behind leaders Rapid Vienna and LASK Linz.
The Braga emblem will not play any matches for the Portuguese championship between the two legs of the play-off, as the game with Estrela da Amadora, referring to the third round, has been postponed to September 10th.
Pafos, a team from Cyprus coached by the Portuguese Ricardo Sá Pinto and which includes Portuguese players Guga, Pêpê Rodrigues, João Correia and Alexandre Brito, fell from the Europa League to the Conference League, eliminated by the Austrians from Salzburg, and will compete for access to the league stage against the Albanian side Dinamo City.
