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St Gallen face tough mission in Istanbul

Sascha Mueller (right) takes on Galatasaray's Mandinga Dos Santos during St Gallen's first leg defeat Keystone

Swiss teams' hopes of being represented in the next round of European football competitions will be put to the test this week. Champions St Gallen, in particular, will need a surprise result to go through.

St Gallen take on the Turkish team Galatasaray in Istanbul on Tuesday, having lost the home leg of the Champions League qualifying round 2-1 two weeks ago.

St Gallen had their chances to win the first leg, but succumbed to greater experience and class in the second half. Galatasary’s recent signing, Jardel, who scored both goals against St Gallen, looks like being the Swiss club’s biggest headache once again. On Saturday he scored five goals in the Turkish league as Istanbul crushed Erzurumspor 7-0.

Galatasaray trainer, Mircea Lucescu, warned that St Gallen would be a different proposition from their league opponents. The Swiss champions have made a solid start to the new domestic championship, winning four of their first seven games. In their last match, they disposed of Sion 3-1, with leading scorer Charles Amoah scoring twice.

Two other Swiss teams will be in action on Wednesday. Lausanne take a one goal lead to Cork in Ireland, hoping it will be sufficient to help them through the UEFA cup qualifying round.

In the same competition, Basel seem assured of a place in the next round, having beaten Folgore San Marino 5-1 in the away leg two weeks’ ago.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR