5200 fans came to the Josko Arena on Sunday evening for the last and decisive game in the regular season for SV Ried. Opponents Sturm Graz came to the Innviertel with an away sector that was filled to capacity. For the first time since February 2020, there were no corona measures for the fans.
Rieder dominated in the early stages and had a good double chance after just three minutes through Stefan Nutz and Nene. In the 7th minute, a large part of the stadium cheered, Philipp Pomer scored a goal, but this was rightly disallowed after the video referee checked, Ante Bajic was flagged for offside.
It took Grazer a relatively long time to get dangerously in front of Ried goalkeeper Samuel Sahin-Radlinger’s goal for the first time. In the 27th minute, Alexander Prass had a double chance.
A header from Tin Plavotic and a long-range shot from Marcel Ziegl created two more chances for Rieder before the break.
Two minutes after the restart, Ried midfield director Stefan Nutz scored the much-acclaimed 1-0 lead with a deflected shot. As a result, Graz came into play better. Substitute Manprit Sarkaria rounded off a visitors’ attack to equalize in the 66th minute. In the minutes that followed, the second in the table dominated events in the Josko Arena. In the middle of this urge phase, Ried’s Leo Mikic started a solo run in the 78th minute, which he completed with a fantastic left-footed shot into the Kreuzeck.
The next excitement followed a short time later in the 81st minute. Referee Julian Weinberger showed Ried goalkeeper Sahin-Radlinger, who misjudged, came out of his goal too late and touched an opponent, the red card. A more than tough decision, but the video referee confirmed the exclusion.
The guests used the numerical superiority just a few minutes later to equalize again. After a corner kick, Gregory Wüthrich poked the ball over the line in the 88th minute to make it 2-2.
Although Rieder remained unbeaten at home in their 17th competitive game in a row, the draw wasn’t enough for the championship group, the Innviertler will play in the qualifying group from next week.
Sahin-Radlinger close to tears
“It’s so extremely bitter, we were so close. I was close to tears for a moment in the dressing room. But it doesn’t help, we will now focus fully on the qualifying group,” said the excluded goalkeeper Sahin-Radlinger the game in the OÖN talk.
“The club deserved to qualify for the championship group, we’ve had a really strong season so far. Staying up in the league was the declared goal before the season. We’ll attack again from Saturday,” said Stefan Nutz.
Source: Nachrichten
