LASK Linz welcome FCSB to Raiffeisen Arena in Austria for the first leg of their Europa League playoff tie on Thursday night.
The winners of this two-legged tie will qualify for the newly-expanded 36-team Europa League, while the losers will drop down into the Conference League.
Match preview
LASK Linz are attempting to qualify for the Europa League proper for the fourth time in their history and for the second time in as many seasons after competing in the 2023-24 group stage.
Die Laskler were forced to settle for another third-placed finish in the Austrian Bundesliga last season, but that means that they have automatically entered the Europa League playoff round as opposed to competing in the earlier qualification rounds.
After a spell as interim coach at the end of last season, Thomas Darazs has since taken the reins on a permanent basis and the 46-year-old has experienced a mixed start to the new campaign, with two wins and two defeats posted across LASK's opening four competitive matches.
A comfortable 3-0 win over lower-league side Union Gurten in the first round of the Austrian Cup was followed by a 2-1 away win against Hartberg in their opening top-flight fixture at the beginning of August, but they have since lost back-to-back league games at home to Rheindorf Altach (2-1) and Red Bull Salzburg (1-0), succumbing to the latter last weekend.
Darazs will be seeking a response from his LASK side on Thursday when they face a FCSB outfit, who have struggled themselves to put together a consistent run of form at the start of this season.
Indeed, the 27-time Romanian champions have won just five of their opening 12 competitive matches in all competitions, winning just one of their first five top-flight fixtures to leave them languishing in 13th spot and already nine points adrift of the summit.
Elias Charalambous's side suffered a narrow 1-0 home defeat with 10 men to Politehnica Iasi last weekend, four days after losing 3-2 to Sparta Prague (and 4-3 on aggregate) in the Champions League third qualifying round.
A place in the Europa League is now up for grabs for FCSB, who are bidding to qualify for the main stage of the competition for the first time since reaching the knockout rounds in 2017-18.
Team News
LASK Linz will be without Andres Andrade (ACL), Ibrahim Mustapha (ankle), Florian Flecker (broken leg), Maximilian Entrup (knee), Ivan Ljubic (hamstring) and Valon Berisha (heel) due to injury, while Tomas Galvez and Tomas Tavares are both doubtful.
Marin Ljubicic is yet to score in four appearances so far this term, but the striker netted 15 times last season and will hope to be given another chance to start up front on Thursday, while former Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng will be hoping to force his way into the first XI.
As for FCSB, Alexandru Musi is ruled out with an unspecified injury, but William Baeten, Alexandru Pantea and Octavian Popescu all recently recovered from injury and are in contention to feature on Thursday.
Captain Darius Olaru, who was sent off against Politehnica Iasi last weekend but is eligible to play against LASK, has been one of FCSB's standout performers so far this season, scoring seven goals and registering three assists in 10 games, and the attacking midfielder is expected to provide support for either David Miculescu or Daniel Popa up front.
LASK Linz possible starting lineup:
Lawal; Bogarde, Ziereis, Smolcic, Bello; Jovicic, Horvath; Usor, Zulj, Pintor; Ljubicic
FCSB possible starting lineup:
Tarnovanu; Cretu, Chiriches, Ngezana, Radunovic; Sut, Lixandru; Stefanescu, Olaru, Phelipe; Popa
We say: LASK Linz 1-1 FCSB
Neither side head into Thursday's contest with a positive run of form behind them, and while they will both back themselves to return to winning ways in the first leg, we can see the spoils being shared on this occasion, keeping the tie nicely poised ahead of next week's second leg in Romania.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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