Austria Wien vs AS Roma - Austria Vienna players feeling 'confident' ahead of Roma test

Posted Thursday, November 03, 2016 by PA

Austria Vienna's Europa League clash with Roma is no David against Goliath, according to coach Thorsten Fink.

The two teams stayed locked together at the top of Group E after Vienna fought back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 in Rome two weeks ago.

Both will be looking to stay unbeaten in the competition, a result Fink feels is more than achievable for his side.

He told a press conference: "It's really important to say that Austria Vienna is in no way a small club. This isn't David and Goliath.

"We want to win the match and even when you're up against the likes of (Daniele) De Rossi, you can still play good football and get the three points.

"The players are all in good spirits and feel confident after the match in Rome. Our result in Italy showed that Austria Vienna produced a really professional performance.

"Both teams need points and both want to win, but a draw would also be a good result for us."

Austria Vienna have only beaten an Italian team once in their history, back in 1983 when they defeated Inter Milan in a UEFA Cup game.

But Fink has experience of defeating Roma having done so twice while manager of Basle, and the Italians have not travelled well recently, being winless on their last seven European trips.

Roma boss Luciano Spalletti is dealing with significant injury problems and was only able to call on 16 first-team players for the trip.

Francesco Totti, who made his 100th European appearance in the home match, will miss out on the return because of a thigh injury.

Defence is the biggest area of concern for Spalletti, whose already stretched resources were weakened further by the loss this week of Emerson Palmieri to a calf strain.