It was the first test match under new coach Fabio Ingolitsch. The 2-2 draw against Club Bruges is at least a respectable success. As is well known, the Belgians eliminated Salzburg in the Champions League qualification with two wins; the team has a market value of almost 200 million euros. In addition, Bruges is much further along in its preparation. The first competitive game is on January 13th, the quarter-final opponent in the Belgian Cup is Charleroi, on January 16th the current second in the table starts the spring of the Jupiler Pro League with the home game against La Louviere and on January 20th there is the Champions League game against Kairat Almaty.
In the 2024/25 season, Graz suffered a 0-1 home defeat against Bruges. At that time, the 30 million man Christos Tzolis scored the all-important goal. And this time too it was the Greek who scored twice. But what the 23-year-old achieved in yesterday’s test, Belmin Beganovic also achieved. The storm attacker also scored twice. Fabio Ingolitsch works on the line, loudly, energetically, and then stands for a moment observing with his hands crossed. He seemed thoughtful, only to have an outside influence on the Black and White game. Not only were there a lot of exchanges during the game at halftime and afterwards, the coach also changed the game system.
Good and bad phases
“We announced that we wanted to be more variable,” said Ingolitsch after the game and summed up: “Overall, we are very satisfied. We played against a very strong opponent at Champions League level, who have their first competition game in a few days. That means they are already further than us. That was their last test. I think that we can take a lot of information with us from this game. We had phases in which we did a lot of things well, but we also had phases We made some adjustments in the second half and although we brought in a lot of young players, we did a very good job of it.
He really liked “the mindset of the team, how they are willing to suffer together and get through difficult phases.” We still need to work on the balance between “high pressing and a deep block. Our behavior has to change fundamentally. When you play against opponents who are technically superior to us, we have to be more compact,” said the coach.
Tochi Chukwuani could leave Sturm
© GEPA
A quartet was not used. Jon Gorenc Stankovic, Jeyland Mitchell and Seedy Jatta still have some catching up to do due to their injuries from the fall “but they should be there on Sunday,” as Ingolitsch says. Tochi Chukwuani was not appointed by mutual agreement. The Danish midfielder is being courted by Glasgow Rangers. “There are talks but no negotiations yet,” said Ingolitsch. According to rumors, the Dane Sturm could bring in around 4.6 million euros.
