Micael is key player - Michorl

Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 by PA

Austria Vienna assistant manager Sepp Michorl has picked out playmaker Ruben Micael as the key man for Nacional in their Europa League Group L clash.

The 23-year-old scored twice in the qualifying play-off against Zenit St Petersburg - once in each leg - including a last-minute goal in Russia which handed Nacional their aggregate win.

Michorl told www.fk-austria.at: "He is a classic playmaker and clearly their best player. They don't attack much on the wings so he, in a central position, has a very important role.

"Ruben plays a lot of decisive passes, but is also responsible for set-pieces making his role very attacking.

"Against Zenit St Petersburg he scored with both his head and his foot."

Micael also set in motion Nacional's comeback against Werder Bremen in their opening group game, providing the corner for Felipe Lopes to head in his side's first goal, although it was ultimately in vain as the German side won 3-2.

Vienna also lost their opener - 3-0 at Athletic Bilbao - meaning a defeat for either side at Franz-Horr-Stadion would provide a serious blow to their hopes of progressing.

Nacional coach Manuel Machado wants to get points on the board sooner rather than later.

He said: "Right now I have the bulk of players available. With less than nine points it will be very difficult to progress.

"We know we have two home games we want to win and we know we have to get the remaining three points in these two away games (against Vienna and Athletic Bilbao), because the game with Werder Bremen is even more difficult, at least in theory."

Machado expects his side to face a battle in Vienna.

"They have a team which is physical and very athletic - they're all 6ft 2in, 6ft 3in - so they're very powerful," he said.

"From the four or five games I've seen, they have four or five players who are technically better than the rest - I'm talking about (Florian) Klein, (Milenko) Acimovic, (Tomas) Jun, (Mamadou) Diabang - attacking players that are a bit different."