In the duel between the two best teams of the past season in the Merkur Arena, the Styrians deservedly got the upper hand 2:1 (1:0) after a convincing performance on Saturday and also took over the top of the table for at least one day. Striker Rasmus Höjlund guaranteed success with a brace (23′, 51′). Maurits Kjaergaard (87th) managed the connecting goal.Graz. As a result, Sturm secured their second win against the Liga Croesus in a row after a 2-1 win in the 2021/22 final on April 27. With this, coach Christian Ilzer’s squad underlined that it might be possible to be involved in the fight for first place for a longer time this year. In any case, a lot of self-confidence could be fueled for the upcoming first leg of the 3rd qualifying round for the Champions League against the Ukrainian record champions Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday (8:00 p.m.) in Lodz, Poland.
Salzburg, who won 1-0 in a friendly against Liverpool on Wednesday, are still on three points after losing their first competitive game of the season. The Mozart townspeople had won 3-0 against Vienna Austria at the start.
Sturm was extremely poisonous from the start in front of 12,317 spectators and did not let the guests come into their own with their aggressive game. The ball also ran forward as desired, and it became dangerous again and again in the Salzburg penalty area. “Bullen” goalie Philipp Köhn was lucky with a mixture of a cross and a shot by Amadou Dante, which landed on the crossbar (7th). The 24-year-old Swiss turned a deflected Höjlund cross over the bar two minutes later. Immediately afterwards, he completely misjudged a Gazibegovic cross, but was lucky that Jon Gorenc-Stankovic didn’t head the ball on target (9′).
It got really bitter for Köhn in the 23rd minute. The goalkeeper couldn’t stop an unideal back pass from Bernardo and Höjlund, sliding up, put the ball into the goal from close range. Manprit Sarkaria should have extended the lead, but his shot went just wide and Köhn saved in a 1-1 duel in dire need (36th each). Salzburg could not be surpassed in terms of harmlessness before the break and never once shot dangerously at the storm goal.
Matthias Jaissle tried to bring a fresh impetus by bringing in Kjaergaard and Andreas Ulmer, but Sturm quickly followed suit. A textbook counterattack was started in his own penalty area and after a pass from Dante, Höjlund grabbed the ball in his own half, simply let the recovered Nicolas Capaldo stand in the running duel and finished powerfully in the best goalscoring style.
After that, Salzburg were even more forced to move forward, but were hardly able to create top chances. For a long time, the most dangerous thing was a near-own goal by Gregory Wüthrich (72′). In the end, however, it got really exciting again. After a long Sucic cross, Ulmer returned the header to Kjaergaard, whose direct acceptance led to the goal. Then Benjamin Sesko missed the chance to equalize (90′). Jörg Siebenhandl also saved the victory with a save from a long-range shot from Seiwald (95th).
Salzburg’s record transfer Lucas Gourna-Douat, who suffered a ligament injury in training, could not play a role. For the Styrians, the absence of the injured offensive supporters Jakob Jantscher and Otar Kiteishvili didn’t matter at all. After the opening 1:1 at the WAC, there was the first win at the second attempt.
Source: Nachrichten
