There’s always an air of excitement as a competition opens its doors for the new campaign.
For Austria Vienna, it was palpable, as this Europa Conference League group stage is their first foray into European football finals since 2017.
Back then, they played in the Europa League, facing AC Milan and AEK Athens in their group. Five years later, the Austrians opened their campaign by hosting Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Despite the occasion, only 9,000 fans turned up at the Franz Horr Stadium. Maybe the relatively unknown nature of the opponent put people off attending, or that fans of The Violets underestimate the importance of the tournament.
For Hapoel Be'er Sheva it's the first step in a recurring situation - being stalwarts of European competition group stages, but failing to qualify for the knockout stages. This time, they will hope to make it through for the first time since 2016-17.
Both sides looked nervous. While Austria Vienna was trying to make chances, they faced Hapoel’s strong defensive line.
One of their best came 14 minutes from time, when the Austrians stole the ball from the opposition in the middle of the field, and pressed forward on the counter.
When Muharem Huskovic got into the box, only the goalkeeper, Omri Glazer, was in front of him - superb defending from Or Dadia helped stop a goal.
On the other side, Hapoel looked poor on the attack, and failed to make a decent chance. Whilst looking better offensively, they registered no shots on target.
Austria Vienna and Hapoel Be’er Sheva couldn’t find the net (Photo by Hapoel Be’er Sheva FC)
On a windy Vienna night in September, it was only ever going to end 0-0.
It’s already looking like Group C will provide a strong race for second place - Villarreal remain clear favourites to top the table, while Austria Vienna, Hapoel Be’er Sheva and Lech Poznan appear to be in contention for that vital second qualification spot.
Both sides going home with one point a piece shows us the real battle we have ahead of us.
