In view of the large gap to Red Bull Salzburg in the Bundesliga, this will probably extend Green-White’s time without a title. Since winning the championship in 2008, the club has been chasing a trophy in vain.
In the Allianz Stadium, there was little to suggest a surprise in the first few minutes. At Rapid, the two winter additions Yusuf Demir and Ferdy Druijf were initially on the bench, while Taxiarchis Fountas and Robert Ljubicic were absent due to illness. Nevertheless, the hosts started well in front of 2,000 spectators, developed a lot of pressure and made it 1-0 early on. After a rather coincidental preparatory work by the recently weak Koya Kitagawa, Knasmüllner flicked the ball into the net with his outside instep via the inside bar.
Rapid also dictated what happened after the art shot, but made a fatal mistake in the 23rd minute. Playing out from the defense failed completely, Emanuel Aiwu couldn’t control a back pass from Dejan Petrovic, Heil straddled and maneuvered the ball into the goal.
This broke Rapid’s flow of the game and it was a balanced game without any major highlights, apart from Maximilian Hofmann’s calf injury. The Rapid central defender therefore had to be replaced in the 38th minute. Towards the end of the first half, the game became more turbulent again. First of all, referee Christopher Jäger gave the whistle for a penalty kick for TSV after a duel between Filip Stojkovic and Thomas Rotter, but he reversed this decision after a closer look at the TV pictures.
Shortly before the half-time whistle, Youba Diarra intercepted a pass from Martin Moormann and used Sturm, who defeated rapid goalie Paul Gartler with a low shot. After the change of sides, Rapid couldn’t do anything with the increased ball possession, and the substitutions of Demir and Druijf after just under an hour didn’t change that.
With the exception of a header from Hofmann substitute Dalibor Velimirovic next to the goal (64th) and a Grüll free kick parried by Hartberg goalie Florian Faist (75th), Hütteldorfer had practically nothing to offer on the offensive, but Velimirovic saw it in the 78th minute .Minute Yellow-Red. Demir missed the big chance to make it 2-2, his header was blocked by Christian Klem just before the line in added time.
This is how the Hartbergers got the lead over time, even though they were only affected by a corona cluster a few days ago. However, coach Kurt Russ was available again for most of his pros, he only had to fall back on the regular number three Faist in goal – the 32-year-old delivered a calm performance. This is one of the reasons why the Hartbergers managed their second away win against Rapid. In the summer, the league also won in Vienna-Hütteldorf.
Source: Nachrichten
