Fixtures
- Young Boys Vs. Aston Villa – Tue, Sep 17th 2024, 17:45
Aston Villa’s Champions League adventure begins against BSC Young Boys on Tuesday night.
The club’s first step back into Europe’s top competition since 1983 takes us to Stadion Wankdorf in Bern to face one of the most successful sides in Switzerland.
Scenesetter
Berner Sport Club Young Boys have 126 proud years of history since their formation in 1898.
Including their maiden Swiss Super League title in 1903, the club have 17 championships to their name.
The most recent of which came last season when they finished 12 points ahead of nearest challengers Lugano.
Patrick Rahmen joined as the club’s new head coach over the summer but things have not started well domestically, with the team sat bottom of the Super League following six games without a win.
Young Boys are regulars on the European scene and are preparing for successive appearances in the Champions League.
Their best performance in the continent’s top competition remains a run to the semi-finals back in the 1958-59 season.
Three to watch
Cedric Itten
The 6’3” striker has found the net regularly since joining Young Boys from Rangers in June 2022.
While goals were hard to come by in Scotland, Itten has bagged 41 in 90 appearances since returning to his homeland.
Seventeen assists in that span shows he can create for his teammates as well as score.
Filip Ugrinic
Ugrinic is a very versatile midfielder who has the ability to be effective in multiple positions.
The Swiss international has mainly been deployed in central midfield, but he can also play on either wing, registering 14 assists and 12 goals in 80 games for Young Boys.
In their Champions League qualifying round against Galatasaray, he showed his class with a goal and an assist while playing as a striker in the first leg.
Lewin Blum
Blum (pictured left) has come through the academy ranks at Young Boys to become a mainstay for the senior squad.
The 23-year-old right-back has clocked up 103 appearances for the club, chipping in 15 assists.
Blum has been a regular starter this term and helped to keep a clean sheet away at Galatasaray in the qualifying round.
Manager focus
After guiding fellow Super League side Winterthur to sixth place last season, Patrick Rahmen took over the reins as head coach.
His remit was to replicate the success of his predecessors Raphaël Wicky and interim Joël Magnin who captured the previous two league titles.
The 55-year-old, who played for the club one season for the club in the 1990s, has endured a difficult start and is yet to win in six league matches.
Three defeats have been followed by three draws, although their form in the cups has given cause for optimism.
A 10-0 demolition of Printse-Nendaz and 4-2 success against Vevey-Sports has taken them through the first two rounds of the Swiss Cup.
The highlight of Rahmen’s short tenure has been progression in the Champions League, where they dispatched Galatasaray 4-2 on aggregate to reach the league phase.
