Despite Burgstaller’s goal: Rapid lost against Klagenfurt 2:3

The Austrian soccer team striker gave Hütteldorfer the lead in his first competitive game for Green-White in over a month and a half (11th), but then Sinan Karweina (60th, 65th) and Aaron Sky Schwarz (74th) secured the victory Carinthians, who improved to fourth place.

Rapid, on the other hand, is still sixth in the table, the 2:3 by Leopold Querfeld (92nd) no longer had any impact. Things had started promisingly for the home side. Unimpressed by his unsuccessful return to the ÖFB team, which ended with a yellow-red card shortly after he was substituted on Monday in Baku, Burgstaller quickly demonstrated his instinct for goal again in front of 17,600 spectators. The captain overcame goalie Phillip Menzel after a pass from Nicolas Kühn.

After taking the lead through the first notable action of the game, Rapid stayed in control but didn’t really pose a threat. Querfeld shot over the crossbar after a corner (28th), otherwise promising attacks often failed due to a poor last pass.

Despite the early deficit, the Klagenfurt team, who had only arrived with 16 professionals and were severely weakened by replacements, could not be lured out, but they only had one moderately dangerous attack before the break – Karweina found his master in Rapid goalkeeper Niklas Hedl (38th).

Soon after the break, Kühn had the chance to make it 2-0, but he poked the ball just past the far corner in front of Menzel (49′). This took revenge in the 60th minute: Karweina was cleared by Jonas Arweiler and sank the ball into the far corner. Four minutes later, the German followed up when he scored with a powerful shot into the short corner of the cross after Marco Grüll lost the ball and was assisted by Christopher Wernitznig. It was the seventh goal of the season for Karweina, who is now at the top of the shooting list alongside Austria’s Andreas Gruber.

Rapid’s answer was cautious. A Grüll free kick wasn’t a problem for Menzel (68th), otherwise Zoran Barisic’s team didn’t manage anything on offense – in contrast to Klagenfurt. The “Joker” Schwarz, loaned to the Carinthians by Rapid, made it 3-1 for the guests with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area into the far corner, the assist came from Karweina.

In the final phase, Rapid was no longer able to make any decisive gains; more than a goal from Querfeld, which was only given after a minute-long VAR review, was not visible. Barisic’s 200th competitive game as head coach of Hütteldorfer ended in bankruptcy. Green-White now has just one win after six home games in the current league season. The Klagenfurt team, in turn, scored eight points from the last four rounds.