Opponent Hartberg would have been relegated if Admira had still won against LASK.
How exactly the relegation came about was completely irrelevant, at least on Friday. At the end the players celebrated with the 300 Ried fans and threw their jerseys into the audience.
After 72 minutes the ingenious pass from Stefan Nutz came to Philipp Pomer, whose long-range shot on goal was converted by Seifedin Chabbi of all people to make it 1-1.
- The live ticker to read
That Seifedin Chabbi, who once could not cheer with the Riedern in the first second division year after the last relegation in 2017 as the top scorer because the Innviertler missed promotion. That Seifedin Chabbi, who was still playing in Hartberg last season and only came to Ried in the summer – where he slowly found his way after a long injury break. After the goal, the goalscorer let his emotions run free in front of the Rieder fan block. After the final whistle, Chabbi was honest: “Now the only thing that counts is that we’re up. But a lot went wrong in this qualifying round. We have to work through that very carefully now.”
Captain Marcel Ziegl: “In the end it was closer than it looked for a long time this season. We missed so many chances to decide that early. We knew that LASK would be 3-0 at the break The lead was. I’ve never been so happy about a LASK victory. After the derby, we also sat with the LASK players at the doping test and pushed them.”
It was the first moment on this hot evening in Hartberg that you could take a deep breath. For nine minutes, the Innviertler were even on a relegation zone. Luckily that was already in the beginning and not in the final phase.
After just five minutes, Ried was 1-0 down thanks to a goal from Hartberg’s Donis Avdijaj. At this point, Altach was already leading 1-0 in the 2-1 win against Tirol. And so the Rieders were last. Only when Husein Balic started LASK’s scoring in the first half hour after a quarter of an hour were the Innviertlers saved again. Nonetheless, Innviertler officials kept checking their cell phones. Even if you could breathe a sigh of relief thanks to Linz’s 3-0 lead in the meantime.
Only the intermediate results are positive
But that was the only positive for Ried for the time being. The Heinle team had to be happy that they didn’t fall much further behind in the early stages. The guests only woke up after half an hour. After the break, Ried got off to a slightly better start. However, things remained dramatic until Chabbi’s equalizer, before both teams stopped hurting each other in the finish.
Numerous departures in Ried
For some, the match in Hartberg was also their last game in the green and black jersey: Luca Meisl looks like saying goodbye, and Dorgeles Nene will also be ordered back to Salzburg in the summer. Michael Lercher, Marcel Canadi and Daniel Offenbacher will also leave the club.
There are also rumors about Ried’s playmaker Stefan Nutz: Wolfsberger AC – the Styrian’s former club – is said to be working on a return. With the Lavanttalers, he could be the replacement for the outgoing captain Michael Liendl. According to OÖN information, the negotiations are already well advanced. Ried is only a passenger in the fight for the 30-year-old director: Nutz has an exit clause in his contract, which he can draw for a fixed fee – which is also within the affordable range for Wolfsberg. Yesterday he proved his class again with his assist to compensate.
Source: Nachrichten
