The free fall in the championship group of the Bundesliga continued in Wals-Siezenheim, the race for the European Cup starting place is actually a nail-biter for Robin Dutt’s squad two laps before the end. “You will see a different team next week,” said Dutt in optimism ahead of the upcoming game at Sturm Graz. An offensively selected harmless offensive and a defensive performance of the WAC characterized by positional mistakes and a lack of duel intensity made it very easy for the Salzburgers on Mother’s Day. Even if the “bulls” exerted a lot of pressure from the start and Karim Adeyemi finally got rid of his spring jamming with a brace (2nd, 37th) – perhaps also inspired by the latest developments in the question of his transfer to Borussia Dortmund in the summer. “I think we will have clarity next week,” said future BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl on Sunday at Sport1.
The mood at the WAC looked completely different, as they suffered their sixth defeat in the eighth game of the master group. “We are currently on the ground,” said goalie Alexander Kofler on “Sky” plain text. He almost single-handedly opposed Salzburg’s offensive and thus prevented worse things from happening. “If you can take something positive with you, it’s that we didn’t get five, six, seven, eight pieces,” said Dutt.
The German, who started the second phase of the season with his squad in third place, tied with the second-placed Sturm, has to worry about the ticket to Europe. The question will probably be decided between Wiener Austria (4th / 23 points), WAC (5th / 22nd) and Klagenfurt (6th / 20th). The sixth gets nothing, the fifth reaches the decider against the winner of the qualifying group play-offs, only the fourth is fixed in the conference league qualification.
“We still have the chance of an international starting place, we’ve worked on that over the course of the season,” emphasized Dutt. “We won’t concern ourselves with negative things, because otherwise this goal isn’t possible. We clearly have the goal of an international starting place. We’re not five points away. The chances aren’t worse than for the other teams.”
The expiry of several contracts, including that of club icon Michael Liendl, is not a factor in the current unform, stressed Dutt. “It’s part of professional football that contracts expire. I don’t see any competitive disadvantage compared to the other clubs, where contracts also expire. I can assure you that everyone will give their all,” explained Dutt in view of the upcoming games against Sturm (a) and Rapid (h). “Those who have been here a long time identify with the club and want to be celebrated in the last game.”
Storm was allowed to celebrate once more. After red for Klagenfurt’s Nicolas Wimmer (13th) for a long time with one man more, the “Blackys” had a lot of trouble. Jakob Jantscher (53rd) and Anderson Niangbo (87th) were the first to secure victory for Graz, who had already been runners-up. Turgay Gemicibasi put the promoted team ahead in the 48th minute. “In the end we still found solutions, but Klagenfurt made life very difficult for us, even with one man less. We didn’t enjoy the game very much, but the way Klagenfurt performs, no team has it easy,” admitted Storm coach Christian Ilzer.
Source: Nachrichten
