With a 2:1 (2:0) home win over Altach, LASK has again approached its goal of seventh place. On Saturday in the 28th round of the Bundesliga, the people of Linz came out on top against the new, old bottom team after Mickael Nanizayamo was red (37th). Sascha Horvath (42nd/Foulelfer) with his ninth goal of the season and Keito Nakamura (43rd) ensured the preliminary decision before the break and the return to first place in the qualifying group.
The only second win in the second phase of the championship was still shaky after Atdhe Nuhiu’s last-minute goal (91st). At the end of the day, the Linzers were tied with the WSG Tirol with 21 points, six points apart from Altach. Vorarlberg, who suffered their first defeat in five games, took over the Red Lantern from Hartberg two points behind the Styrians.
At LASK, Thomas Goiginger and Hong Hyun-seok stayed on the bench on the offensive, with Horvath and Husein Balic acting for them. Altach had to change because of the suspensions of defenders Fabio Strauss and Bakary Nimaga, and Nuhiu was given a chance up front from the start.
LASK outnumbered
As far as scoring chances are concerned, for a long time there was very little in front of around 4,000 spectators in Pasching. The favored LASK struggled against the guests’ defensive, which worked well as in the past games, and which in turn did not get beyond harmless pinpricks.
Finally, Nanizaymo’s “emergency brake” was needed to stop the rushing Balic and the Frenchman’s exclusion as a result. The events overturned in the episode formally. A little later, Nuhiu illegally pushed the incoming Petar Filipovic from behind in the penalty area. Horvath didn’t miss the chance from the penalty spot. Just a good minute later, LASK took advantage of the unsorted Altach defense, and in the third attempt the agile Nakamura was finally successful from a few meters.
Tension only came up briefly in the 55th minute. Referee Alexander Harkam pointed to the penalty spot after LASK goalie Alexander Schlager fouled Philipp Netzer, but revised the decision after consulting VAR.
With that the game was over. Because LASK left some good opportunities through Florian Flecker (48th), Rene Renner (54th) and Nakamura (62nd) and a “hundred” through “Joker” Goiginger alone against Altach goalie Tino Casali (69th) missed, it actually got tight again for Linz in added time. After a long pass to Nuhiu, he let James Holland and Rene Renner get out in goal-getting style and slammed the ball into the net from short range.
Source: Nachrichten
