Three days after the European Cup defeat against Fenerbahce Istanbul (0:2), the Viennese celebrated their second league win in a row and now have four points after the point deduction at the beginning of the season. The WAC, who took the lead through Thorsten Röcher (16th), is still waiting for their first win of the season in the Bundesliga and is the new bottom of the table with two points.
Schmid did not nominally field a striker after the first leg of the Europa League play-off against Fenerbahce and wanted to try playful solutions and speed, as he explained before the game. He also had to do without the suspended Lucas Galvao, and the suspicion of a cruciate ligament rupture was recently confirmed in the case of talent Florian Wustinger. After the 1-0 win in the Conference League qualifier at Norwegian leaders Molde, WAC coach Robin Dutt relied on the same successful team.
Austria beats the WAC
Wiener Austria won the duel between two European Cup starters at RZ Pellets WAC and thus handed over the red lantern to the Carinthians after five rounds.
WAC provides the first highlight
A minute’s silence was held before kick-off to commemorate the victims of the recent storms in the Wolfsberg area. After that, the guests from Vienna determined the game at the beginning with long phases of possession, but without creating any chances.
After an initial shock for the WAC, when defensive chief Dominik Baumgartner had to be replaced after just ten minutes with muscle problems in his thigh, the Carinthians were allowed to celebrate. Röcher secured a free-kick from Konstantin Kerschbaumer in the penalty area, where the 31-year-old dribbled past James Holland and Manfred Fischer somewhat fortunately and hit the cross corner like a dream.
After that, the Carinthians controlled what was happening, Austria barely made it into the danger zone. The fact that Gruber scored his second goal in his third competitive game for Vienna came as a surprise. After winning the ball in the WAC forward movement, Dominik Fitz played an ideal hole pass, Gruber remained ice cold in a one-on-one with WAC goalie Hendrik Bonmann.
Djuricin scores shortly after being substituted on
Even after the change of sides, the Viennese had more game shares and also the better chances of taking the lead. After a counterattack by Gruber and the strong Matthias Braunöder, the Carinthians blocked an attempt by Manfred Fischer at the last moment (54th). Shortly thereafter, the ball wriggled in the net after a Braunöder shot, but Gruber had previously been just offside (58′).
A little later the time had come: Billy Koumetio sent Gruber down with a high pass, the newcomer ideally placed across Djuricin, who had been substituted on just a few seconds earlier, and who only had to push in. After that, the Schmid-Elf gave the ball to the WAC, but stood tightly staggered on the defensive and concentrated on fast counter-attacks. The Dutt-Elf struggled, the Carinthians lacked brilliant ideas in front of goal. Nikolas Veratschnig (93′) had the best chance of equalizing.
Comments on the game:
Robin Dutt (WAC coach): “We lost a bit of stability in the first half. Of course, as WAC we don’t want to be bottom of the table after five matchdays. Each game has its own story, but of course we are very dissatisfied. We’re in the situation that we shouldn’t underestimate that at all, the distance between the points and the line shouldn’t be too big. We aspire to play in the champions group.”
Manfred Schmid (Austria coach): “It was the expected difficult game, it was a game on an equal footing. We fall behind due to an unnecessary set piece where we don’t go into a tackle. We should have closed the sack, and in the end it was still a tremor. Both teams had a difficult European Cup game on Thursday, you could see that. We’ve now scored seven points, that’s really good.”
Admiral Bundesliga, fifth round
Sunday:
WAC – Austria 1:2 (1:1)
Wolfsberg, Lavanttal-Arena, SR Ciochirca
Torfolge:
1: 0 Röcher (16th)
1:1 Gruber (36.)
1:2 Djuricin (65.)
WAC: Bonmann – Novak, Baumgartner (11th / D. Gugganig), Piesinger, Schifferl, Jasic (68th / Veratschnig) – Leitgeb (77th / Taferner), Vizinger, Kerschbaumer – Röcher (68th / Vergos), Baribo
Austria: Früchtl – Ranftl, Handl, Mühl, Koumetio, Martins – Braunöder, Holland (63rd/Jukic) – Fischer – Gruber (77th/Tabakovic), Fitz (63rd/Djuricin)
Yellow cards: Vergos or Ranftl, Djuricin
The best: Vizinger, Röcher or Gruber, Braunöder, Koumetio
