Bidstrup shot Salzburg to a 1-0 win at Sturm

On Sunday, the Bulls prevailed 1-0 (0-0) in the rather poor summit meeting at Sturm Graz and increased the gap to their first pursuer to five points with eight rounds to go in the Bundesliga.

After two draws, Mads Bidstrup (48th) secured the not undeserved first win of the season in a direct duel, whose hot-tempered character contributed to Sturm’s Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Dimitri Lavalee (each red) as well as Salzburg’s Lucas Gourna-Douath (yellow-red) after forming a pack ended with three dismissals and looked forward to seeing the two teams again in the cup semi-finals on Thursday (8:45 p.m.) in Salzburg.

Storm coach Christian Ilzer had to provide a central figure in Otar Kiteishvili. The Georgian brought back a calf injury from the successful European Championship qualification, which he couldn’t get under control in time. William Böving moved back to midfield, and youngster Amady Camara took over his role. Salzburg’s coach Gerhard Struber stuck with the team from the 5-1 win against Hartberg in the championship group opener, also because captain Amar Dedic again appeared on the sideline and was again replaced at right back by Flavius ​​Daniliuc.

Intense, one-on-one duel

Sturm, spurred on by their own supporters in the Merkur Arena, which was almost sold out with 15,372 spectators, swung the baton with aggressive pressing at the beginning of the first half and appeared in the opposing third a few times – Mika Biereth in particular was the focus. For the time being, the intense, duel culminated in a head-on collision between striker David Affengruber and Salzburg striker Fernando (12th), the latter continued with a turban.

In the early stages, his team only managed to get close to the opponent’s goal in rare moments. Only after around 25 minutes did more impulses come from the guests, who made better use of their switching moments. Fernando in particular always radiated danger. In the 29th minute his shot went relatively close to the goal, and shortly before the break he missed Sturm’s box twice again (40th, 43rd).

Shortly after the restart, Salzburg rewarded themselves. After a throw-in and header duel, the ball came to Bidstrup around twelve meters, who made it 1-0 for the guests with a powerful volley via the inside bar of the short corner. Sturm reacted, but had no luck in his best phase of the game. Jusuf Gazibegovic hit the post with a long shot towards the far corner (55′).

Heated discussions after the final whistle

Szymon Wlodarczyk and Max Johnston came into Sturm’s game after an hour, which now got tougher again. A clear miss from Alexander Prass went wide (69′), while on the other side Fernando was unable to control a long pass in front of the goalie Vitezslav Jaros, who was not very busy (66′).

Towards the end, Salzburg celebrated too early after Strahinja Pavlovic’s free kick and header (80′), the VAR confirmed the offside decision against Petar Ratkov and thus kept the game exciting. At the end of the game, which had 13 minutes of added time, Sturm tried the power play again, but had no luck. The only “highlight” was a short wrestling match between Gorenc Stankovic or Lavalee and Gourna-Douath (95th) as a result of his yellow-worthy fouls. First Gorenc Stankovic and Gourna-Douath were thrown off the pitch, and after a VAR check, Lavalee too. After the final whistle there were still heated discussions on the pitch, and Sturm sports director Andreas Schicker also picked up a red card.