Rapid starts the Conference League with a guest game in Istanbul

Bendeguz Bolla and Rapid are guests in Istanbul.
GEPA images

SK Rapid will play its first Conference League game on Wednesday (5:30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker). Rapid wants to sell well away to Istanbul Basaksehir FK, fourth in the table in the last Süper Lig season. The team around captain Matthias Seidl will travel to the metropolis on the Bosporus on Tuesday morning.

Head coach Robert Klauß will not be allowed to stand on the sidelines after his red card, which he saw after the final whistle of the Europa League play-off second leg against Braga. Nevertheless, the 39-year-old German is looking forward to the guest appearance against the fourth-placed team in the last Süper Lig season: “Basaksehir is an opponent who has a lot of quality in the squad and has been in the top five of the Süper ten times in the last eleven years .” Lig was. In addition, the Istanbul team have regularly been successful in the group phases of various UEFA competitions in the recent past.

The Rapid coach doesn’t want to downplay his own achievements either: “We can also look back on many positive games and of course we want to win in Istanbul too. We really wanted to play a match every three days in the fall and that’s what we’ve been aiming for all summer.” In addition, be as prepared as possible. We must and will prepare as best we can for the match on Wednesday afternoon. For me personally it is of course very bitter that I have to sit in the stands due to the suspension, but I have full confidence in my coaching team.

Around 550 Rapid fans on site

Rapid will be supported by around 550 Rapid fans in Istanbul on Wednesday. After the guest appearance in Trabzon in August, this is the second European Cup game in Turkey this season. One of the players who will not be on the plane is offensive player Isak Jansson, who will probably only be an issue at Rapid again after the international break due to his knee problems. However, midfielder Lukas Grgic is now eligible to play again after his early exclusion from the Europa League play-off first leg in Braga.