Champions League qualifiers – Fenerbahçe: two “away games” in Lugano – Sport

Lugano kicks off the European Cup season. On Tuesday, the Ticino team will host Fenerbahce in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. In front of several Turkish fans.

On Tuesday evening, Lugano will play the first of at least three matches in Thun. Last season’s Super League runner-up chose the Bernese Oberland as its place of exile, after the previous European Championships, when the stadiums of St. Gallen and Zurich had to replace the local Cornaredo Stadium.

A large number of “Fener” fans

At least the Luganesi will not have a lot of support in their first appearance as home team at the Stockhorn Arena in Thun. Although almost all of the 6,000 tickets were sold, only around 5,000 were sold. chuna daily To the Fenerbahce fans who travel from the region. The fact that the visiting team must remain closed as required by UEFA is irrelevant. The 19-time Turkish champions are not short of supporters.

Just days into the Superliga season, Lugano face a tough task to stay in the Champions League – and then have to resort to a French tie against Lille in their next game. The road to the top flight group stage is a rocky one.

A simple calculation

The group stage of the Europa League or the divisional league seems more realistic. The calculation is simple: 3 wins in the qualifiers means the Champions League, 2 Europa League, 1 divisional league, and none means early exit from the European Cup.

Lugano can relax and look forward to the encounter with Fenerbahce. “They are better, but we have nothing to lose,” coach Mattia Croce-Totti explained. It was the first competitive away game under Mourinho and the pressure was high.

With more than three weeks to go before the start of the Turkish League, Fenerbahçe has to step up its recent preparations. This seems to have been achieved in the friendly matches against English second division team Hull City (5:1) and French Ligue 1 club Strasbourg (4:0).

Lugano had a great fight in front of the Turks and were happy about it. Crocci-Totti made a joke about Saturday’s 2-1 win over Grasshoppers. Asked about the bad start and being 1-0 down at halftime, the coach said: “It was my fault. When I talked about the kick-off, the players must have understood that it was 6:30 pm and not 6 pm.” Crocci-Totti said they showed their character after the unsuccessful first half-hour.