Twelve games, a total of more than 6.5 million euros in revenue and finally the first LASK home game of the season with a real European Cup atmosphere, but still no chance of a sensation: for LASK the Europa Conference League is 4: 3 after yesterday (1:2) in the round of 16 against Slavia Prague with a total score of 5:7.
The fact that it was still enough to win in the end was mainly due to the opponent. When the second Slavia player, Srdjan Plavsic, had to leave the field with a red card after 85 minutes, LASK was still 2:3 behind. Andreas Gruber (88th) and Alexander Schmidt (89th) at least turned the return game. The people of Linz were celebrated by the fans who had traveled with them – there were a total of 5,500 in St. Pölten.
The effort was there from the first to the last minute yesterday, but so was the class difference between the two clubs over 85 minutes. Slavia Prague played in a league of its own – and time and again let the LASK defense stand on the counterattack.
At 0:1, Peter Olayinka’s shot after a counterattack went exactly where he wanted it – namely in the right corner of the cross (24th).
- The live ticker to read
LASK stumbled the equalizer in the truest sense of the word. Peter Michorl’s free kick bounced back off the inside post. Philipp Wiesinger had the empty goal in front of him on the fifth, but stumbled on the first shot attempt before he somehow managed to get the ball under control on the fourth attempt in the turmoil and while lying prone – and pushed it over the line (36′).
Wiesinger’s stumbling block
It suited Slavia’s class that LASK had hardly finished celebrating when 67 seconds later it was 1:2. Spokesman Wolfgang Fröschl had just said “thank you” to the fans after the goal scorer’s announcement – that’s when it hit the black and white team again. LASK was opened again on the left wing. After his sprint, the lightning-fast Yira Sor still had enough air and overview for the ingenious cross pass over half the field. Alexander Bah completed the 1: 2 (37th). At least the first yellow-red for Aiham Ousou (42nd) didn’t matter to the guests. After 62 minutes, Yira Sor hung the LASK defense again – 1: 3.
Then the LASK race to catch up began. Philipp Wiesinger scored two goals for the first time in his 238th competition game. After just seven goals in 113 league games, 40 minutes was enough for him yesterday. Half of the long-range goal to make it 2:3 (76th) also belonged to Slavia’s goalkeeper Ales Mandous. The goalkeeper then made no mistakes on the other two LASK goals. In the end, both teams were able to celebrate with their fans.
Source: Nachrichten
