Comeback victory for Rapid – 3:2 after 0:2 against Sturm Graz

Hütteldorfer beat Sturm Graz 3-2 after being down 2-0 in front of 22,300 spectators at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday, celebrating their first competitive win after seven games and their first win against Sturm after ten unsuccessful attempts.

Thanks to the small revenge for the lost cup final, green and white moved up to fourth place in the master group. If this position is maintained in the final away match against Austria Klagenfurt on Saturday – a draw is enough for that – Rapid would be in the third qualifying round for the Conference League and would save themselves the European Cup play-off.

Graz, who were already runners-up, seemed to be heading for a win after goals from Manprit Sarkaria (10′) and Otar Kiteshvili (33′), but Guido Burgstaller (40′), Roman Kerschbaum (45’+4′) and Marco Grüll (66′) caused the turning point.

Before the game, Christoph Kasmüllner, Dejan Petrovic and Lion Schuster were officially dismissed – the expiring contracts of this trio were not renewed. Replacement goalie Paul Gartler received a new working paper for this until the end of 2024/25. However, Niklas Hedl was in goal again, who got fit in time after his shoulder problems.

Rapid’s goalkeeper had to reach behind him for the first time in the tenth minute. After a bad pass from Aleksa Pejic, Kiteishvili put on for Sarkaria, who made it 1-0 for the visitors via the underside of the bar. The ex-Austrian had already scored both goals for the Styrians in Sturm’s 2-0 win over Grün-Weiss in the cup final. Sturm stayed on the trigger, a long-range shot by Alexander Prass flew over the bar (26′).

Shortly thereafter, the “Blackys” increased to 2:0. Rapid’s defense lost an unfortunate figure with a throw-in, Kiteishvili fired just outside the box and the deflected shot rolled past the puzzled Hedl into the corner. In response, Block West chanted “We want to see Rapid” and the home side actually got into the game better.

Grüll brought the ball to the middle and Burgstaller scored the connection goal from the turn. The striker netted in the eighth consecutive league match, something no one in the green-and-white jersey had done before. In addition, Burgstaller, who now leads the shooting list with 21 goals, scored in the tenth mandatory home match of Hütteldorfer in a row.

That goal had a hugely positive effect on Rapid. Moritz Oswald fired over from a good position before Kerschbaum made it 2-2 just before half-time. The midfielder headed in after a Grüll corner.

At the beginning of the second half, Rapid also posed a threat from a standard situation – after a Grüll corner kick, a Burgstaller header was only centimeters short (52′). But Sturm also tried to find a way forward, and Hedl had to stretch after a header from Jan Gorenc Stankovic (58′). On the other side, Nicolas Kühn headed wide (64′).

Rapid scored the decisive goal two minutes later. Burgstaller provided some preparatory work worth seeing for Grüll, who hit the far corner flat from the penalty area line. In the end, Sturm fought doggedly to equalize, but the hosts managed to keep the lead over time.