Radlinger after red: “I was close to tears”

• Video: LASK missed entering the master group. SV Ried still had the chance to do this on their own with a win today. And unfortunately, that just didn’t work out.

“Finale!, Finale!” That’s how the 5100 fans comforted the SV Guntamatic Ried footballers after they were only a few minutes and a few centimeters away from the championship group in the 2-2 draw against Sturm Graz. It was enough to make you cry – until the 87th minute, the Innviertlers were 2-1 up in the champions’ group before the key scene in the game turned everything upside down.

“I was close to tears for a moment in the dressing room. It’s so extremely bitter, we were so close,” said goalkeeper Samuel Sahin-Radlinger, who became an involuntary protagonist in the 81st minute. The goalkeeper had risked a trip outside the penalty area in a storm attack – and caught storm Niangbo. It was a foul, but was it red? “No – I can’t understand it. Players could have intervened,” said Ried’s sports coordinator Wolfgang Fiala after the game.

A top Austrian referee said in an OÖN interview about the basic interpretation of the rule: “If the striker would have continued to have possession of the ball without the foul, you still have to give a red for a goalie foul if the player is halfway in the middle of the goal and has a chance of scoring would have been great.” That was the case in this situation. Sahin-Radlinger was also annoyed about the action: “Of course I came out too late. It would have been better to stay in goal. I touched him lightly. I still think red was too hard.” Captain Marcel Ziegl: “We can be proud of ourselves after this semi-final. Sami Radlinger is so important to us. We don’t need to raise him up.”

Bundesliga debut for Haas

Christoph Haas made his Bundesliga debut for Sahin-Radlinger. The 29-year-old, who came from Admira in the summer, was able to save the free-kick after Sahin-Radlinger’s red. In the second action in Graz it was 2:2: Gregory Wüthrich scored for the Styrians from close range. That wasn’t enough for Ried after Rapid’s 3-0 win over Klagenfurt.

Twice as bitter because Ried took the lead twice through Stefan Nutz (46th) and Leo Mikic (78th). That wasn’t enough. Now at least two derbies against LASK continue. The European Cup chance lives for both Upper Austria clubs. Even if that couldn’t dry the Rieder tears, at least yesterday.