From a red-white-red point of view, LASK is the last Mohican in the new Europa Conference League. SK Rapid said goodbye yesterday in the intermediate round, Austria’s record champions were defeated by Dutch representative Vitesse Arnheim, who turned the tables after the 2-1 defeat in Vienna with a 2-0 (2-0) home win.
Today (1pm, live stream on uefa.com) things get serious for the black and whites, who were able to follow the play-off games as the sovereign group winners on the front row. The round of 16 draw for the duels on March 10th and 17th will take place in Nyon. Possible opponents of LASK, who will enjoy home advantage in the second leg in the NV Arena to St. Pölten, are Rapid conqueror Vitesse, Slavia Prague, Partizan Belgrade, Bodö/Glimt, Olympique Marseille, PSV Eindhoven or Leicester City.
There is no such thing as a dream opponent – in the sense of supposedly easy – in the knockout phase. Even Bodö/Glimt from Norway is a tough nut to crack. Norway beat AS Roma 6-1 in the group stage and beat Celtic Glasgow 5-1 on aggregate in the second round.
The most attractive lot for LASK would undoubtedly be Leicester City, the English club that sensationally became champions in 2016 with ex-ÖFB team captain Christian Fuchs. Whoever it is, UEFA will reward promotion to the quarter-finals with one million.
Rapid could have earned 900,000 euros yesterday, but the money goes to Arnhem because the green-whites defended inferiorly before the break and were hardly compelling offensively. Ironically, the former ÖFB team striker Adrian Grbic chose the encounter with his youth club Rapid for his premiere goal in the Vitesse jersey. The 25-year-old sank the ball after just 162 seconds to make it 1-0. After Robert Ljubicic missed the top chance to make it 1-1 (18′), Matus Bero increased it to 2-0 (19′). “Something like that shouldn’t happen to us,” said sporting director Zoran Barisic.
The wake-up call for the break didn’t work. In the finish, nerves were on edge because Kevin Wimmer had tried to carry Bero, who was lying on the ground, off the field to gain time (79th). There was a pack formation on the outline – without red cards. But there was a small ray of hope: Upper Austrian Philipp Schobesberger celebrated his comeback in the 81st minute after a long period of suffering. It was his first competitive game with the Rapid professionals since November 2019.
Source: Nachrichten
