Last Champions League appearance YB wants to make an honorable exit and rake in the cash

YB coach Giorgio Contini is hoping for a positive finish before the team's last appearance in the Champions League. And he hopes that his team will receive reinforcements in attack.

At first glance, there's not much at stake. When Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade face each other in the sold-out Wankdorf Stadium on Wednesday evening, it will be a duel between two teams that have already been eliminated from the Champions League - with no prospect of making a heroic effort to lift themselves into the knockout phase on this final matchday of the reformed top flight.

And yet there are still a few things at stake in this clash between the Swiss and Serbian champions. The winner will receive around two million francs in prize money. Apart from monetary incentives, this seventh clash between YB and Red Star Belgrade is also about prestige.

Niasse will soon be gone

Alongside Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys are the only one of the 36 teams still without a point in this year's Champions League. The Bernese have come close to scoring a few times, most recently in Glasgow, when they conceded a goal late on. This time, in their provisional debut at the highest European level, YB are hoping to pick up their first points.

"It's great motivation for us to end this campaign on a positive note," says Giorgio Contini. After the game in Glasgow and two 0-0 draws in the championship, the new YB coach is still waiting for his first goal in his new role. "Scoring goals is always the most difficult thing," says Contini. "Defensively we're good and don't concede much, but offensively our efficiency hasn't been good so far this year."

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The 51-year-old can therefore well imagine that an attacking player could join the team before the transfer window closes in mid-February. "We should leave all our options open," says Contini, who did without Cheikh Niasse in the final training session for the match against Red Star Belgrade. Contract negotiations are at an advanced stage, says Contini, meaning that the departure of the 25-year-old Senegalese player should soon be official. Meschack Elia, on the other hand, who missed Saturday's game against Grasshoppers, trained with the team again on Tuesday and would theoretically be available as an option in attack.

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Blum knows how it's done

One player who knows the feeling of scoring a goal against Red Star Belgrade is Lewin Blum. At the end of November 2023, the right-back scored the second goal in the 2-0 win in the group game that secured Young Boys a place in the Champions League for the first time.

"I hope we can give something back to the fans with a good performance," said the 23-year-old, who enjoys the trust of Contini at right-back. "Even if we can't progress any further, it would be positive for our feeling if we weren't last in the table."

In this respect, there is still something significant at stake. The red lantern, which the Bernese would like to send in the direction of Bratislava.

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