In 1996, Feyenoord Rotterdam were knocked out en route to the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup. After a 1-1 away draw, Hütteldorfer had a terrific 3-0 win on April 18 before there was no happy ending in the final in Brussels with a 0-1 loss to Paris St. Germain. Nevertheless, it is still one of the greatest successes in the club’s history.
In the recent past, the Viennese only met a Dutch representative in 2015 in the third qualifying round of the Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam. There, too, Rapid fought for a draw in the first game, this time in front of their own crowd, with a 2-2 draw and caused a surprise away with a 3-2 win on August 4th.
Midfielder Srdjan Grahovac has good memories of that time and he also has a chance to play from the start this time. Christopher Dibon and Philipp Schobesberger also collected minutes in this game, but they will probably not play a role on Thursday. In the first leg before that, Maximilian Hofmann was also on the field, who had to sit out injured around six and a half years later.
Success in the first leg gives confidence
The 2-1 win at the Allianz Stadium could also be a good omen. In the only two first-leg wins against Dutch opponents in the European Cup, promotion was successful. Both times PSV Eindhoven were the opponents, in 1955 in the Champions Cup Round of 16 and in 1981 in the UEFA Cup Round of 16. But PSV is also the only opponent from the Netherlands who has already defeated Rapid – in the Cup of Cup Winners Sixteenth Round in 1969 and in the Champions Cup Round of 16 in 1987.
PSV are also the only club to have teased an Austrian team in the recent European Cup, namely Sturm Graz with a 4-1 away and 2-0 home win in the Europa League group stage this season. Previously, since 2019, LASK had played against PSV (0:0/4:1/2019) and AZ Alkmaar (1:1/2:0/2020 semi-finals) as well as WAC against Feyenoord Rotterdam (4:1/1:0 /2020) can succeed in this competition.
Feldhofer with good memories
At that time, the current Rapid coach, Ferdinand Feldhofer, was still working as a trainer at the WAC, so he started the trip to the Netherlands on Wednesday with a good feeling. “I enjoyed winning twice against Feyenoord. Almost all duels have recently been won by Austrian teams, except for Sturm. The trend is clearly pointing in the direction of Austria, our standing has definitely improved,” said the 42-year-old from Styria.
In the UEFA five-year ranking, Austria is now in eighth place with 38.450 points, just behind the Netherlands (44.900). “Holland is still with us in the nation ranking, but that can change,” said Feldhofer with an optimistic view of the future.
