This Thursday night, Tiernan Lynch’s side will come up against FC St. Gallen of Switzerland in matchday three of the League Phase of the UEFA Conference League. In this article, we take a closer look at our upcoming opponents.
St. Gallen are the oldest club in Switzerland having been founded in 1879. The Swiss Super League outfit traditionally play in green & white and play their home games at the Kybunpark, a 20,000-capacity stadium in the city of St. Gallen itself.
Domestically, St. Gallen have won two top-flight league titles (1903/04 & 1999/00), one Swiss cup (1968/69) and one Swiss League Cup (1977/78).
ST. GALLEN IN EUROPE
The Swiss outfit are no strangers to European football, having been involved in UEFA competitions since the 1969/70 campaign.
Having tasted experience in competitions including the European Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League, St. Gallen are definitely a side that are used to travelling all across Europe to compete on the biggest stages.
Despite regular appearances in the qualifying stages of competitions, it took St. Gallen until the 2013/14 season to qualify for a group stage of a UEFA competition as they upset the odds to qualify for the UEFA Europa League. The Swiss side overcame Russian opposition in the form of Spartak Moscow in the play-off round to make history and were pitted in a group alongside Valencia, Swansea City and Kuban Krasnodar, where they ultimately finished 4th.
This season marks their second appearance thus far in a UEFA competition as they qualified for this season’s League Phase of the UEFA Conference League. St. Gallen entered the competition at the second qualifying round and overcame FC Tobol, Slask Wroclaw and Trabzonspor to make it through.
St. Gallen’s six opponents for the League Phase of the competition are Fiorentina, Cercle Brugge, FC Heidenheim, Vitoria de Guimaraes, FK TSC and of course, Larne.
THE PLAYING SQUAD
St. Gallen have a squad that is littered with different nationalities throughout and have quality throughout the whole side.
Centre midfielder Lukas Görtler captains the side and boasts FC Bayern Munich, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and FC Utrecht amongst his former clubs. Between the sticks, Lawrence Ati-Zigi is a shotstopper who boasts international experience, making 26 appearances for Ghana and being their first-choice goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup.
At the back, Albert Vallci is an ever-present for the side having joined from RB Salzburg back in 2022.
In attack, one of their own who has come through the ranks is left winger, Christian Witzig. At just 23 years old, the winger has amassed nearly 100 appearances for St. Gallen and made his international debut for Switzerland last month in their 2-2 draw against Denmark in the UEFA Nations League.
The main standout name in the squad is striker Willem Geubbels. Coming through the ranks at Lyon and being touted as France’s next big star, Gubbels sealed a €20 million move to AS Monaco and as touted as Kylian Mbappe’s replacement following the global stars move to PSG. After suffering setbacks and spending time on loan at FC Nantes, the 23-year-old striker found a new home at St. Gallen, who he joined in 2023 and has scored 18 goals in 71 appearances so far for the Swiss side.
RECENT FORM
St Gallen are thirteen games into their Swiss Super League campaign and currently find themselves in the bottom half of the twelve-team league, sitting in 7th position.
The Swiss side have struggled to get any momentum together on the domestic front so far this season, with four wins, five draws and four defeats in the league.
St. Gallen currently find themselves on a winless run of eight games in all competitions, with their last victory coming back in September as they ran out 4-1 winners over FC Zurich in the league.
In the League Phase of the UEFA Conference League so far, the Swiss side have suffered two defeats from two games, as they fell 6-2 to Cercle Brugge and 4-2 to Fiorentina to find themselves just one spot above Tiernan Lynch’s side in 35th position in the table.
