Austria’s women’s football team will play Benfica Lissabon in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Thursday after strong winds forced a 24-hour postponement of the fixture.
The notification regarding the schedule change reached the Austria squad only upon their arrival at the airport in Portugal’s capital, according to sport.ORF.at reporting. The fixture was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but officials issued a severe weather warning with expected wind gusts reaching up to 140 kilometers per hour.
Sky Sport Austria said that the team had to adapt their workload management on short notice. FK Austria Wien reported that the match will now take place at 21:00 local time on Thursday.
The fixture will be staged at the more than 68,000-capacity Estadio da Luz, marking the first time the Austria women’s side plays at the primary home venue of a men’s professional counterpart in Europe. “Wir freuen uns alle extrem, spielen gegen eine super Mannschaft in einem tollen Stadion, das viel Geschichte hat. Deshalb wird es wieder ein Highlight,” said captain Carina Wenninger, as cited by sport.ORF.at.
Head coach Stefan Kenesei explained that while on-field training sessions were canceled due to the weather, the extra day allowed the technical staff to conduct deeper tactical reviews. Defender Virginia Kirchberger-Prohaska added that the unexpected rest interval helped manage player fatigue following a dense match schedule, with their domestic Bundesliga fixture against Salzburg already postponed.
Benfica enters the fixture holding the twelfth and final qualification spot in the league phase standings, while Austria sits three points behind in fifteenth position after collecting two points from their first three matches. “Wir wollen unbedingt Punkte mitnehmen, weil man mit einem Spiel schnell auf einem Play-off-Platz sein kann,” Wenninger told sport.ORF.at.
Following the trip to Lisbon, Austria faces fixtures against Bayern München and Manchester City; the upcoming encounter offers a chance to improve their points total before the winter break, as outlined by Sky Sport Austria.
Benfica comes into the match after securing a 2-1 victory over Juventus, a result Kenesei described to sport.ORF.at as a warning about the quality of their opponents. FK Austria Wien highlighted that the Portuguese champions have won six consecutive domestic league titles and feature an international roster including top scorers Caroline Möller and Nycole Raysla.
For the visitors, the availability of top scorer Modesta Uka remains uncertain due to muscular issues, while defender Katharina Schiechtl returns to the backline. “Wenn wir annähernd an die Leistungen von den Spielen gegen Chelsea oder Inter anknüpfen können, dann rechnen wir uns auch in Lissabon was aus,” Kenesei said.
