Image: EXPA/THOMAS HAUMER (APA/EXPA/THOMAS HAUMER)
Rapid coach Zoran Barisic only changed his starting eleven in one position compared to the 2-1 away win in Wolfsberg: The recovered Marco Grüll replaced Ante Bajic on the left offensive side. The ailing Oliver Strunz was not in the squad again. There was only one change for Salzburg compared to the 2-0 win at home against Ried: Luka Sucic played instead of Oscar Gloukh.
Rapid was caught off guard by the guests after less than four minutes. A quick free-kick from Nicolas Capaldo landed in a roundabout way at Andreas Ulmer. Salzburg’s captain served Nicolas Seiwald, who was completely free in the middle, with a fine pass from the outside, who had little trouble scoring his second Bundesliga goal.
As a result, a battle-focused game developed in which both teams acted on an equal footing. The Viennese got into the game better, but Burgstaller aimed too high with a long-range shot (21′). Referee Dieter Muckenhammer gave both players a yellow card (25′).
Rapid equalized deservedly
Inaccuracies in the structure of the game then prevented both sides from scoring chances – up to the 44th minute. A long ball from Niklas Hedl found Marco Grüll, who prevailed in a duel against an indisposed Amar Dedic and hung up perfectly for Bernhard Zimmermann. The 21-year-old netted to equalize with the right and scored his seventh goal of the season.
In added time, Sucic had to leave the field and was replaced by Gloukh. Jaissle also took out Noah Okafor at the break and brought on Sesko. The hit continued to be intense, but playful highlights remained the exception. Both teams largely neutralized each other. A VAR intervention after a foul by Aleksa Pejic on Lucas Gourna-Douath caused the greatest excitement for the time being, referee Muckenhammer decided on a yellow card (69th).
The game picked up speed again: Burgstaller initially had the Rapid-Lead at the head, after a Kasius cross the striker failed at a spectacularly reacting Philipp Köhn (78th). The Salzburg goalie also defused Grüll’s margin.
On the other side, substitute Sesko became the match winner: the Slovenian initially used an unfortunate rebound from Rapid-Central defender Michael Sollbauer to guide the guests again (80th). Four minutes later, the striker followed suit and coldly converted a pass from Gloukh to make it 3-1. But Sesko didn’t have enough of that and shortly afterwards increased to 4:1. This sealed the champions’ 16th win of the season in the league. Burgstaller finally scored a header in added time to make it 2:4.
400th Bundesliga game by Andreas Ulmer
In Salzburg, captain Andreas Ulmer played his 400th league game, which only 34 players had done before him. Coach Matthias Jaissle’s team has a nine-point lead over Second Sturm Graz in the table and will be traveling to LASK next Sunday. Rapid receives the WSG Tirol on the same day.
Source: Nachrichten
