The European Cup is over for Rapid. The Viennese lost the round of 16 second leg of the European Football Conference League at Vitesse Arnhem 0: 2 (0: 2) on Thursday evening and had to accept the end after a 2: 1 win a week ago. Austria’s international Adrian Grbic (3rd) and Matus Bero (19th) scored decisively for the Dutchman in the first 20 minutes. Rapid was far too harmless on the offensive in the duel between the sixth in the Dutch honors division and the seventh in the Bundesliga. Due to the failure of coach Ferdinand Feldhofer’s team, LASK is Austria’s only representative in the round of 16 of the third-highest European Cup competition. The draw is scheduled for Friday (1 p.m.) in Nyon.
Feldhofer wanted to create “historic” with the first round of 16 entry on the international stage since 1997. He tried again in Arnhem with a young team. An experienced player, Filip Stojkovic, was suspended and Thorsten Schick, who was fit again, replaced him on the outside right. Five players eligible to play for the U21s were in the starting line-up for Grün-Weiß (23.4 years on average). Vitesse went into the game without suspended first-leg goalscorer Lois Openda and on a negative run. The team of ex-Austria coach Thomas Letsch had not won for almost a month.
Rapid arrived in front of a little more than 500 supporters who had traveled with them, tactically changed. In the unfamiliar 3-4-3 system, carelessness number one Vitesse leveled the early 1-0. Grbic, who has been trained in the Rapid youth team for a long time, had a clear path after a wide pass from right-back Eli Dasa and gave Niklas Hedl no chance in his European Cup debut. The Viennese’s offside trap went completely in vain, Rapid’s false start was perfect. For Grbic, on loan from Lorient, it was his first competitive goal for Vitesse.
The Hütteldorfer initially held against it, Robert Ljubicic should be given the opportunity to equalize. After Grüll’s hole pass, the midfielder was alone in front of goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen, who made a save with his hand (18′). A minute later it was 0:2 from the guests’ point of view. Again Dasa levered out the back three with a cross, which the Slovakian Bero completed. For the first time in this duel, Rapid was behind. The Dutch presented themselves more secure on the ball and defensively had everything under control. Yusuf Demir, Ferdy Druijf and Marco Grüll could hardly set any accents.
Feldhofer reacted at the break by returning to the back four. Vitesse was now deep in his own half of the field and switched to counterattacks. After just under an hour, Koya Kitagawa and Christoph Knasmüllner replaced Demir and Schick. But not much was visible. A gruelling free kick, which sailed past friend and foe in the penalty area, was the most dangerous action by the Viennese. At the other end, Kitagawa made a mistake, Grbic failed to hit Hedl, and Dasa hit Srdjan Grahovac in the margin (68′).
After 76 minutes the game seemed to be over, but the Danish referee team rightly saw an offside position before the supposed 3-0 even without VAR help. Philipp Schobesberger made his comeback in the finish after more than two years of injury-related break in the pros. The 28-year-old was also unable to set any more accents.
Whether the disturbed sleep also played a role cannot be said. In any case, on the day before the game after midnight, Vitesse fans set off fireworks in front of the Viennese team hotel that lasted several minutes. Thanks to the intervention of the police, however, peace was soon restored.
Source: Nachrichten
