Rapid Vienna welcome Dundalk to the Allianz Stadion on Thursday night with both sides still searching for their first point of Europa League Group B.
Vienna and Dundalk have both lost to Arsenal and Molde so far, and know that another defeat in this Group B basement battle would all but end their hopes of making it through to the knockout rounds.
Match preview
© Reuters
Rapid Vienna will feel as though their tally of zero points from two outings so far does not fairly reflect their performances in this season's tournament, having been unfortunate not to get anything out of the opener against Arsenal and then also only narrowly losing to Molde on matchday two.
Nevertheless, Thursday's match is bordering on must-win territory for the Austrian outfit as they look to translate their domestic form - which has seen them win seven and lose none of their eight matches so far this season - into Europe.
Vienna have scored 27 times in those domestic outings but have found the back of the net only once in the Europa League so far - and that was due to a Bernd Leno mistake in their opening group game against Arsenal.
The Gunners' turnaround in that match means that Dietmar Kuhbauer's side have now lost back-to-back Europa League home games, and on Thursday they risk losing three on the bounce for the first time since a run of five between September 2010 and October 2012.
Vienna will be confident of returning to winning ways in their first ever meeting with Dundalk, though, having seen their visitors lose 16 of their last 19 major European matches.
Dundalk have won just one of those and have conceded five times in their two group games so far this season, most recently being brushed aside by Arsenal at the Emirates courtesy of a four-minute blitz either side of half time.
Filippo Giovagnoli's side struggled to get close to their more illustrious hosts in that match, as evidenced by the fact that they went through the entire game without committing a single foul - the first time in Europa League history that has happened.
The Irish outfit will not have gone into this season's competition with huge expectations, but perhaps the most worrying aspect of their form is that it appears to be having a knock-on effect domestically, with three defeats and a draw in their four outings across all competitions since the group stages began.
Rapid Vienna Europa League form: LL
Rapid Vienna form (all competitions): WWLWLW
Dundalk Europa League form: LL
Dundalk form (all competitions): DWLLLD
Team News
© Reuters
Rapid Vienna
Out: Taxiarchis Fountas (hand), Dalibor Velimirovic (ACL), Christopher Dibon (knee), Philipp Schobesberger (ACL)
Doubtful: Yusuf Demir (coronavirus)
Dundalk
Out: Dane Massey (hip)
Doubtful: Nathan Oduwa (hamstring), Patrick McEleney (muscle)
We say: Rapid Vienna 2-0 Dundalk
This is unsurprisingly the first ever meeting between these two sides, and it is one that Rapid Vienna will expect to win. The hosts have only narrowly been beaten in their two games so far and we are backing them to finally get off the mark at the third time of asking here.
