Vaduz in a European group stage for the first time

Part of the Liechtenstein princely family resides in the Vienna region. And if one of their princesses actually followed the match between Rapid Vienna and FC Vaduz in the stadium in Austria’s capital, as the Liechtenstein newspaper “Volksblatt” announced, the blue-blooded fans will have got their money’s worth.

Because the outsiders from Vaduz, who play their home games in the Rheinpark directly under the princely palace, created a football fairy tale abroad. They won 1-0 at Rapid, making it the first time a club from Liechtenstein will be represented in the European Cup group stage.

The term “Dudelingen” had already made the rounds in the stadium during the game

It is remarkable that Vaduz survived three qualifying rounds to get into the Conference League, even though they were the underdog in every duel. They defeated the Slovenian cup winner (Koper), the third in the last Turkish championship (Konyaspor) and now the proud Austrian record champion. And progressing against Rapid was well deserved.

In the first leg, Vaduz had a clear chance and the referees denied them two goals that would probably have been awarded if VAR had existed. And also in the second comparison they were the stronger team. Rapid ran out of ideas and only created a few opportunities to equalize, which would have led to overtime.

After the departure of the Viennese, the “Kronen-Zeitung” headlined: “Rapid makes a fool of himself against football dwarf Vaduz” and described the failure as “embarrassing and bitter”. During the game, the term “Dudelingen” had already made the rounds in the stadium, based on the fact that Salzburg stumbled across the Luxembourg semi-professionals from F91 Dudelingen on their way to the Champions League in 2012. The ORF commentator said, looking at the grandstand where Rapid legends watched the match: “They sink deep into their chairs.” The Rapid fans raged after the final whistle.

But it is more important to emphasize how much the Vaduz players amazed – like Tunahan Cicek. The 30-year-old striker seemed overly motivated in Vienna and after twenty minutes his substitution was inevitable as he was ever closer to being sent off. But then he went out and scored that goal, which is worth several million Swiss francs. Cicek of all people, who hasn’t made any big leaps in his career financially and at times even delivered eggs as a part-time job for his father-in-law’s poultry farm.

Or there would be Milan Gajic, even five years older than him, formerly engaged in FCZ and YB. With his ball security, he provoked the red card from an opponent in Vienna, which slowed down Rapid’s comeback. And not to forget the 33-year-old captain and goalie Benjamin Büchel, who proved to be a reliable interceptor from flanks – and once again a master of tactical time games.

The coach Mangiarratti had to suffer – but his bosses, the Burgmeier brothers, kept calm

The success is also important for Alessandro Mangiarratti, the Ticino coach of FC Vaduz. He, who had previously looked after the U-21 juniors from YB, took over the difficult legacy of Mario Frick at the beginning of the year, who was called up to higher positions and switched to FC Luzern. Mangiarratti has had disappointments to digest; In the current Challenge League season, his team is only in 9th place with two points from five games, only Xamax is even worse.

But his superiors have kept calm, probably also because they know that FC Vaduz traditionally has problems with the start of the season in the summer because they have to cope with more stress than their opponents in the championship due to the European Cup qualification.

Mangiarratti’s bosses are Patrick and Franz Burgmeier, the brothers who complement each other well. The club president Patrick is considered a considered diplomat. And sporting director Franz has repeatedly shown how, despite modest resources, you can put together a squad that, thanks to strong team spirit, can surpass itself. It will have helped that as a player he was also an affable team player.

And it was precisely this collective unity that made the latest exploits possible in the first place for the people from Vaduz. Otherwise they couldn’t have silenced 27,000 frenetic Turkish spectators with a 4-2 win in Konya two weeks ago. And so they managed to turn Swiss football upside down once again: Vaduz, the basement child from the Challenge League, qualified for the Conference League, which YB, the leaders of the Super League, missed in the penalty shootout against Anderlecht . A truly princely triumph.