Ahead of a UEFA Champions League matchday five meeting with FC Porto on 26 November, FK Austria Wien midfielder James Holland said the Violets may need to adopt a risk-taking strategy in an attempt to keep their European ambitions alive.
Several months on from having helped the Austrian Bundesliga side into the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time, the Australian international said the experience he has gained in the tournament thus far would prove invaluable to his career. However, with Nenad Bjelica’s team still in contention in Group G – despite just one point to show from their efforts against Porto, FC Zenit and two encounters with Club Atlético de Madrid – the 24-year-old midfielder was reluctant to sound overly nostalgic just yet.
“We will play to win,” Holland said of Austria’s next encounter at the Estádio do Dragão. “We did quite well against Porto at home the first time around [when visiting midfielder Lucho González scored the game's only goal]. I thought we played some really good football. We had chances to score and maybe could have even won it had we had a little bit of luck. Tactically, we did quite well and I think there were things we can bring into the second game against them.”
Austria’s only point of the campaign thus far came away to FC Zenit, a match that preceded two comprehensive defeats by section winners Atlético. “They are a team that can really punish you,” the former AZ Alkmaar and Sparta Rotterdam midfielder explained. “I thought we were quite comfortable against them at one stage but then, bang, they score and, bang, they score again. They don’t do anything out of the ordinary but they play so effectively; they play great football while keeping things simple.”
Explaining that a January 2012 move to his current team from the Netherlands was “unexpected,” Holland hopes that regular playing time in a “strong and often underestimated” top division will increase his chances of making Australia’s 2014 FIFA World Cup squad.
In the meantime, however, there are European ambitions to realise. “[If UEFA Champions League qualification is not to be], then we won’t be giving up in our fight for a UEFA Europa League spot,” he said. “That’s what I want and I know it’s what the team wants too. We will look to see how we can break Porto down but in our attempts to win, we will obviously have to take some risks. Hopefully we can get the right result.”
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