Rapid canter to 5:0 home success over LASK

It took 100 seconds for Rapid to give the visitors a taste of what lay in store on Saturday afternoon, a Christoph Saurer free kick flying into the back of the net only for celebrations to be interrupted by an offside flag against Salihi. Coach Pacult elected to field the same line up as the one that salvaged the late point in Mattersburg last week, while new LASK coach Georg Zellhofer went for a 5-4-1 formation as he looked to plug his sides leaky defence. The Green Whites got off to an excellent start, forcing their nervous opponents onto the back foot and dominating proceedings. It came as no surprise when Salihi headed Rapid into the lead on 11 minutes, the striker latching on to Kavlak's free kick. An imperious Rapid kept coming forward, probing away looking for the second, while their beleagured guests couldn't find a way out of their own half. Kavlak tested Mandl in the 28th minute, while Sonnleitner went close with a header just a minute later. The pressure finally told on the stroke of half time as Rene Gartler took advantage of some suicidal defending down the right flank to lay a second on a plate for Hamdi Salihi. The half time whistle went with LASK looking like boxer teetering against the ropes.LASK switched to a 4-4-2 formation for the second half, introducing Sobkova in an effort to stem the Green White tide. An unchanged Rapid picked up, where they left of and never gave Linz a sniff of a chance in what was proving to be a very lonely night for Raimund Hedl. Rene Gartler deservedly got his name on the score sheet in the 76th minute as he received a Drazan pass from the left with his back to goal. The forward swivelled and fired an excellent low effort into the corner to extinguish any lingering hopes of an unlikely comeback LASK may have been harbouring. Mandl, in goal for the visitors, denied Drazan in the 85th minute before Salihi's late show added a bit of deserved gloss to the scoreline for Rapid. The Albanian hit man converted in the 87th minute following more excellent work from Drazan, before Rene Gartler set up his strike partner for the 5th and final goal in the last minute of the game. 16th round:SK Rapid - LASK Linz 5:0 (2:0)Hanappi-Stadion, 15.200, Referee KrassnitzerGoals: 1:0 (11.) Salihi, 2:0 (45.) Salihi, 3:0 (76.) Gartler, 4:0 (87.) Salihi, 5:0 (90.) SalihiSK Rapid: Hedl - Kayhan, Sonnleitner, Soma, Katzer - Kavlak (70. Trimmel), Heikkinen, Pehlivan (83. Patocka), Saurer (75. Drazan) - Salihi, GartlerLASK: Mandl - Hart, Piermayr (46. Sobkova), Chinchilla-Vega, Winkler, Schellander - Krammer, Duro, Majabvi, Kaufmann (66. Mayrleb) - Zickler (76. Trauner)Yellow Cards: Piermayr, Schellander, Chinchilla-Vega, Duro(gw)