Bitter Sunday for Austria! The Violets had to accept defeat 1:2 at SCR Altach. The game started well for Michael Wimmer’s team. Johannes Handel gave the Viennese the lead after just five minutes. But the reply came after just two minutes. Fedinger equalised.
The first half of the game contained controversial refereeing decisions – including in the 15th minute of the game. After Gruber’s handball, Gishammer pointed to the penalty spot. Mike-Steven Behre headed in to make the score 1-1. Austria dominated the game, but felt the loss to Gishammer. When Sandro Ingolitsch attacked Hakim Guenouche from behind, who hit the crossbar from close range, surprisingly no penalty was given after a VAR check (34th). The whistle also remained silent when Atde Nuhiu handled the handball in the penalty area (40th). However, in the 43rd minute, it was only Andreas Gruber, who could not receive the ball well.
The game calmed down after the break. Austria tried hard, but the defense of Altach was mostly good. And when Gruber hit the ball across the line, his hand was in play (77′). Nuhiu, on the other hand, had the early decision in hand, his cracker landing on the crossbar (75th). In the end, the striker had to leave the field with a yellow-red card (92′), two minutes later Galvão followed him into the dressing room with a yellow-red card (94′). Altach didn’t let the win slip away from them and are happy with their best start to the season in six years. For Austria, on the other hand, five points after eight rounds is the worst start to the season since 2006, when the Viennese were champions, but personnel numbers were reduced after Stronach’s announcement and five points without a win also remained. Were kept.
For LASK, cooking at home again was the order of the day after the 1:3 defeat in the Europa League against Liverpool FC. TSV Hartberg was a guest in Upper Austria. Thomas Segeder’s team could not progress beyond the 0-0 draw. Both teams controlled themselves well early on in front of 10,350 spectators and made it difficult for their opponents to progress the game by applying early pressure. The first notable opportunity came in the 26th minute. Hartberg used their intimidating counter-attacking prowess, but Dominik Prokop only hit the bar of the far corner after Donis Avdijaj’s pass. This should be a wink with the Hartburger fence post.
The game picked up pace and the visitors clearly posed more of a threat. First Avdija hit the bar with an emotional shot from 17 metres, in the next scene he chased the ball over the goal in a perfectly free-standing five-pointer (33′). Shortly after, the German was denied by Tobias Laul (36′) after a good hole pass in a one-on-one. Soon after, the LASK goalkeeper was present when Christoph Lang fired a shot from a tight angle (38th).
His counterpart Rafael Salinger was challenged by Florian Flicker’s powerful long-range shot shortly before half-time (45′) – and became the hero ten minutes after the restart. As a result of a foul by Jürgen Heil on Rene Rainer in the penalty area, the goalkeeper threw himself into the right corner of Zulz’s penalty and thus prevented Linz from taking the lead, which was difficult to justify at the time. But they turned up the heat late on and did not give TSV much breathing room. However, the now apparent dominance rarely resulted in scenes with big goals. More than a side kick from Fleecher, which Salinger stopped (60′), and a Tallozero header just above goal (94′) could not be seen to the end. Hartberg rarely counterattacked, but once he did he was extremely dangerous. Andrés Andrade was able to intercept Rubén Providence’s solo effort at the last moment and the shot went wide of the goal (63′).
