FC Winterthur will get their third successive season in the Swiss Super League underway this weekend when they take on St Gallen at Stadion Schutzenwiese on Saturday evening.
These two rounded out the Championship Group in the playoff phase last season and were eventually separated by eight points at the end of the term, with the hosts finishing sixth and the visitors fifth.
Match preview
The last two seasons have been incredible for Winterthur, as they successfully navigated their return to the top flight in 2022-23 and followed up by earning a top-half finish last term.
Indeed, this campaign will likely prove if last season's heroics were a one-off or whether the Red and Whites can push on from that performance and become genuine European contenders.
Additionally, it will be interesting to see how the side fare without Patrick Rahmen, whose influence was a major key to the success last season and resulted in the 55-year-old being recruited by league champions Young Boys.
However, initial signs under the guidance of Ognjen Zaric have been positive with the now-former assistant manager leading the side to victory in all of their pre-season friendlies.
Winterthur have failed to beat this opponent in their last four attempts, including a 3-1 loss in the penultimate match of the Championship round last season at this venue.
Meanwhile, despite falling off somewhat in the playoff round last season, St Gallen managed to earn 12 points more than they did in 2022-23 with only two extra games, while also improving their sixth-place finish by one.
Additionally, they will also return to Europe this season, with fifth place being enough to earn them entry to the Conference League qualifiers after Servette won an incredible penalty shootout 9-8 against Lugano in the Swiss Cup final.
One of the most notable improvements made by the side last season was their attacking output, with their 60-goal tally ranking as the third-most in the division only behind Young Boys (76) and Lugano (65).
Like their opponents here, St Gallen are also set to start the season under new leadership, with Enrico Maassen now in the dugout following Peter Zeidler's move back to his home country with Bochum.
Maassen oversaw the side's final two pre-season friendlies, which began with a 3-1 loss to lower-division Rapperswil-Jona before a 1-0 win against Vaduz on the road last weekend.
Team News
Winterthur will kick off the new season without two players in midfielder Musa Araz and centre-forward Roman Buess, who are still on the road to recovery from a knee and head injury respectively.
Marvin Keller has now returned to Young Boys and Armin Abaz was released in the summer, which should mean that Austrian Markus Kuster will assume the number-one role this season.
For St Gallen, Betim Fazliji and Gregory Karlen have both already been ruled out for the entire 2024-25 season after undergoing surgery following serious knee injuries.
Nikolaj Moller and Musah Nuhu are also facing extended periods on the sidelines owing to cruciate ligament tears, while Abdoulaye Diaby is expected to be fully recovered from his head injury by the end of the month.
FC Winterthur possible starting lineup:
Kuster; Rohner, Lekaj, Arnold, Schaettin, Durrer, Stillhart, Burkart, Schneider, Fofana; Turkes
St Gallen possible starting lineup:
Ati-Zigi; Vallci, Ambrosius, Okoroji, Schmidt; Quintilla, Witzig, Goertler, Toma; Akolo, Geubbels
We say: FC Winterthur 1-2 St Gallen
While Winterthur have made massive strides forward over the last couple of years, last season's playoff round proved they still have a bit more work to do to close the gap between themselves and the top five.
While an away game to kick the season off is not ideal, St Gallen have had a solid preseason, and we feel they will get the new campaign underway with a victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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