Red Bull Salzburg immediately took the initiative in the game against Rapid and struck with their first chance. After a remarkable attack via Nicolas Seiwald and Karim Adeyemi, Sucic made it 1-0 for the champions. After that, Salzburg had everything under control and had a lot of possession but few chances to score. It only became really dangerous again in the 39th minute when Leopold Querfeld blocked Junior Adamu’s header in front of the line. In the 45th minute, Rapid snuffed out the great opportunity to make it 1-1. Moritz Oswald was freed by Marco Grüll, but was denied by goalkeeper Nico Mantl (45′) in front of Salzburg’s goal. The last action of the first half belonged to Salzburg again, with a shot by Rasmus Kristensen not missing much.
After the change of sides, Rapid presented themselves as at least equal opponents and fought passionately for the equalizer, which was missed by a hair’s breadth in the 73rd minute. A shot from Arase first landed on the post and then bounced off the back of Mantl’s head and onto the crossbar. Salzburg could have increased in the 78th minute, but a volley from substitute Brenden Aaronson went over the goal.
Rapid’s pressure phase in the finish brought nothing more, with the exception of a Strunz chance (90th) thwarted by Mantl, which means that Rapid is dependent on Sturm’s support in the race for third place. Third place guarantees participation in a European Cup group phase, fourth place has to qualify for the Conference League, fifth place competes in the European Cup play-off of the league.
Eric Martel brought the violets into the lead after one minute. After a long ball, Martel initially missed the Stangl pass from the right by Aleksandar Jukic. Manfred Fischer then tried a cross from the left, and Ohio was there this time and scored from close range with his left to make it 1-0. Klagenfurt was largely unimpressed by the early deficit and had a great chance to equalize a little later: Florian Jaritz ran after a fine pass from Turgay Gemicibasi from the left alone towards goalkeeper Patrick Pentz, but missed the ball at the far corner (10th minute). ). Even a good standard situation did not bring the desired goal for the hosts, Kosmas Gkezos missed the goal with a header from a free kick (17th). As a result, a balanced game unfolded without the really big opportunities.
The second half started promisingly for the Pacult squad. After a Blauensteiner cross, Jaritz again had the equalizer on his foot, but Pentz parried his direct acceptance brilliantly (47th). Manfred Schmid’s team didn’t provide much inspiration at the front. A Martel header to Suttner-Corner, which, however, went well over the goal, was the most notable chance (63rd).
In the 68th minute, Klagenfurt was rewarded for its offensive efforts. Pentz was able to fend off a headball from Markus Pink after a Rieder corner kick, but the Viennese goalkeeper then had no chance against Patrick Greil’s follow-up shot (68′). As a result, the Carinthians kept the pressure on and were closer to the winning goal, but the guests scored it. Substitute Vesel Demaku had far too much space on the right and passed to Fitz, who was also exchanged and who put in an untenable shot for Moser (85′). This was the first time there was a winner in the fourth duel of the season between the two Austria teams.
The guests from Lavanttal got off to a good start and settled into a corner series right from the start in the offensive half. After such a corner kick, the ball came to Lochoshvili who had moved up and he sunk the ball from 16 meters into the far corner (8′). The WAC stayed on the trigger, Sturm found it difficult to get into the game. In the 19th minute Novak put the ball back on the free-standing Baribo and he scored with a full shot from the penalty area to make it 2-0.
The WAC became a party fright in front of 15,142 spectators in the last home game of the season in front of 15,142 spectators. Liendl made it 3-0 after just 25 minutes from the penalty spot. However, the fans waited in vain for a successful offensive action by the home side in the first half hour. Captain Jakob Jantscher had the first chance to score, but Dominik Baumgartner made a strange save via the crossbar (30′). Christian Ilzer reacted to the disappointing performance after 34 minutes with a triple substitution. When going into the dressing room at half-time, only a few whistles could be heard from the Graz crowd, who supported the game well despite being clearly behind.
Sturm didn’t give up in front of a full house and reduced the score to 1:3 after 53 minutes. Ljubic headed a Jantscher free kick into the goal. For a short time, the game no longer seemed to be going so clearly in the direction of a clear WAC victory. Alexander Prass narrowly missed the far corner with a good chance (63′). However, that was the last really good chance for Graz in the game. At the other end, Baribo missed the final decision by a hair’s breadth (70′). Substitute Vizinger (76th) succeeded.
In the end, Sturm had to admit defeat with one of the weakest performances of the season and continued the negative trend against WAC in their own stadium. The Lavanttaler won for the seventh time in a row in Graz, the last storm home win against the Wolfsberger dated December 2, 2018.
