Rapid’s struggles for form continue in Ried

Bundesliga match day 28th saw the Hütteldorfers travel westwards to take on struggling SV Ried in the Keine Sorgen Arena. Perhaps unsurprisingly the Rapid trainer team opted to freshen up the starting line up following the shock result and performance last time out against Admira. Stefan Stangl, Flo Kainz and Max Hofmann all found themselves on the team sheet, whilst experienced duo Mario Sonnleitner and club captain Steffen Hofmann had to settle for places on the bench. In the absence of Steffen Hofmann on the pitch, Christopher Dibon had the honour of donning the captain’s armband. Midfield enforcer Thanos Petsos didn’t make the trip with the rest of the squad owing to an issue with his back.

The pre-match talk was understandably of delivering a positive performance and banishing the ghosts of last week. And it was the Green & Whites who made the more positive start: an early cross into the box found its way to Philipp Schobesberger, who did well to bring the ball under control and get a shot away, but he got his angles just wrong and the effort went the wrong side of the far post (1.). Continuing to exert early pressure on their lowly hosts, another ball into the box, this time from Srdjan Grahovac again found Schobesberger, who laid the ball off perfectly for Matej Jelic, but a Ried defender managed to get a block in and clear the danger (6.). Just before the quarter hour mark Jelic was then presented with a genuine opportunity, but headed a Mario Pavelic cross over Ried keeper Thomas Gebauer's crossbar (14.).

Despite making little headway in an attacking sense, Ried were showing the levels of commitment required of teams in such predicaments and refused to yield and inch in the middle of the park. The home sides aggression was matched by Zoran Barisic's players and the game became characterised by commitment and heavy tackles rather than flowing football and goal scoring opportunities. Nonetheless, it was Rapid who continued to look the more likely team and they should’ve gone ahead minutes before half time: a perfect low cross from Mario Pavelic into the six-yard box found an unmarked Jelic, but the strikers control let him down and the ball squirmed away and into the hands of Gebauer (41.). It was a glorious chance that really should have been capitalised upon.

The start of the second half saw Rapid continue to probe and look dangerous, despite the last crucial pass proving elusive. Ried managed to launch a rare foray into Rapid territory though, and remarkably stole the lead: the ball found its way to Kreuzer in the penalty area, and with his back to goal, the Ried man was allowed to turn and fire a powerful shot past Richard Strebinger into the bottom right hand corner - 0:1 (56.). Barisic responded by throwing Alar into the mix in place of Schaub as Rapid desperately sought to conjure an equaliser. A free kick from Kainz provided a moment of danger in the Ried box (68.); whilst Jelic did well to wriggle free of the attention of a cluster of Ried defenders in the box before testing Gebauer from a tight angle (77.). The last effort on goal came from Kainz, who danced in off the left wing past three defenders, before unleashing a cracking effort from outside the box that flew just wide of the right hand post (84.). Unfortunately, that was to be as close as Rapid would come and the Hütteldorfers were consigned to another disappointing defeat.

(gw)