Image: GEPA pictures/ Edgar Eisner
Thanks to goals from Matthias Seidl (15th), Oleksandr Romantschuk (43rd / own goal), Marco Grüll (51st), Guido Burgstaller (72nd) and Ante Bajic (90th), Rapid remain in the running for the UEFA money pots. Last year’s Italian finalist Fiorentina is now the last hurdle before the group stage.
The first leg in Vienna will increase next week. After days of rampant summer flu in eastern Hungary, Rapid arrived with personnel worries. Nicolas Kühn and Patrick Greil were therefore not available to coach Zoran Barisic. Moritz Oswald was allowed to try his hand at the right wing position, which was uninhabited for him. Grüll was fit again on the left.
The more than 1,000 Rapid fans who traveled took up position behind goalie Niklas Hedl. And at first they often only saw the ball from afar. Because her team attacked early and in the early stages repeatedly won the ball. After such a game it was 1:0. Seidl intercepted a Hungarian back pass and gave goalie Balazs Megyeri no chance with a precise shot into the near post (15′). The guest leadership had emerged.
The Viennese initial furioso fell silent with the lead. The duel was lost in banter with sometimes strange referee decisions. After 34 minutes, the North Macedonian referee Aleksandar Stavrev drew four yellow cards – all four went to Rapid. His assistant on the line raised his arm decisively in the 32nd minute, Debrecen striker Dorian Babunski maneuvered a free-kick cross over the line from an offside position.
The third-placed team from the previous Hungarian season was completely harmless in attack and made a decisive mistake defensively: Burgstaller duped right-back Erik Kusnyir on the outside goal line and with the following Stangl pass, Grüll forced Oleksandr Romantschuk to score an own goal in the center (43′).
The preliminary decision was made early in the second half. A throw-in from Thorsten Schick and a pass from Roman Kerschbaum were enough for Grüll to hit the target and turn goalie Megyeri to make it 3-0 (51′). Even Barisic, who had been reserved before, clapped loosely with his supervisory staff because of the efficiency shown by his team.
Despite the management mode, Rapid again improved against Hungary, who were 192 places worse in the UEFA club rankings: A shot from Oswald coming from Megyeri’s back bounced off Burgstaller’s feet (72′). Afterwards, frequent players were rested and players with previous problems were replaced. For example, Maximilian Hofmann made his comeback after a protracted hip injury in place of Leopold Querfeld. And substitute Bajic was happy about his debut goal in the European Cup (90th) after Seidl’s preparatory work.
Source: Nachrichten
