Markus Schopp literally took a bath on his debut as LASK coach. In constant rain, the athletes had to admit defeat in the derby at Blau-Weiß Linz on Saturday with a score of 0:1 (0:1). The golden goal scorer in the Hofmann Personal Stadium was Ronivaldo, who scored in the 16th minute. The Blues have thus won the last two derby duels in the Bundesliga. Coach Gerald Scheiblehner’s team last won 2:0 in November 2023.Linz. With the third win of the season, Blau-Weiß improved to fourth place in the table – another highlight for the young Bundesliga club, which is only playing in its second year in the league. After the fifth defeat in a row, LASK remains in eleventh place with a meager three points and is therefore second to last.
Schopp had put six players back in the starting line-up compared to the 1:5 defeat against WAC. Tobias Lawal returned to goal, Hrvoje Smolcic and George Bello moved into the back four, while former world champion Jerome Boateng only sat in the stands. The coach, who was brought in from Hartberg in a rush, was forced to do without Sascha Horvath because of a red card suspension. Robert Zulj was still not fully fit after breaking his nose.
However, there was no positive Schopp effect in the first few minutes. Blue-White was the more active and aggressive team at the start and won more duels. Simon Pirkl fired the first shot towards the LASK goal after just one and a half minutes. And after a quarter of an hour, a group of cheering players gathered around Ronivaldo after the goal scorer put Anderson’s cross from the right into the net with his first touch. LASK had previously carelessly lost the ball during the build-up, and Ronivaldo skillfully sneaked into a gap in the central defense.
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Image: GEPA/Manuel Binder
Source: Nachrichten