Mika Biereth with a goal (18th) and Otar Kiteishvili with a self-taken penalty (71st) scored the double winners, who were superior for a long time, to their fifth victory in the championship after three competitive games without a win. Sturm is now one point ahead of Rapid, three ahead of Salzburg, who have played two games less. Graz’s joy was marred by a suspected elbow injury to captain Jon Gorenc Stankovic.
Also read: 1:1 – LASK took a point from Rapid
Thomas Goiginger made it 1-1 with his first league goal for Blau-Weiß (33′). However, Gerald Scheiblehner’s team could not prevent their first home defeat of the season.
Sturm dominated from the start in front of a sold-out crowd (5,595), pushed the Linzers deep at times and took the lead after 18 minutes. Brighton loan player Malick Yalcouyé moved inside after clever physical deception and hammered the ball onto the crossbar from just outside the penalty area – Biereth sank the rebound.
Blue and white were offensively harmless at the start
For Linz, it was the first goal conceded at home this season after successes against Austria, Rapid and LASK. Scheiblehner called up the starting eleven that had won twice recently. His team had a lot to do defensively against the variable champions and was completely harmless on offense for half an hour.
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Image: GEPA pictures/Daniela Moser
Source: Nachrichten
