It took a while for both teams to acclimatize to the blustery conditions: to start with Rapid and Admira, the latter enjoying a solid first season back in the Bundesliga, tested each other out with a spluttering of long shots and half chances. As the game progressed the Green & Whites felt their way into proceedings and slowly began to assert themselves and dominate the hosts in front of the 9,000 strong crowd. Vital breakthroughSteffen Hofmann’s 21st minute corner, taken in front of the travelling Rapid masses, swirled in the wind and evaded everyone on its way direct into the Admira goal. It was perfect timing for Schöttel’s charges and confidence visibly grew as they began knocking the ball about the park with an ever increasing sense of freedom. Admira were struggling to establish any form of forward momentum and it was proving a lonely afternoon for Jan Novota who was deputizing for the ill Lukas Königshofer. Hosts punished late onThe green & white domination continued into the second half. Admira attempted to inject more urgency and tempo into their game but the Rapid backline was looking solid and not in the mood to hand out any easy chances. Rapid were beginning to counter with more menace as things started to look a bit ominous for the hosts: warning signs were there on the hour mark when Grozurek missed by a matter of inches with just keeper Tischler to beat. There was no reprieve for Admira in the 72nd minute: Nuhiu headed down to Deni Alar who controlled neatly before thumping the ball home from 8 yards. If the game wasn't over then it certainly was four minutes from time: Alar was again involved, this time his header back across goal was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Seebacher to wrap up the points. A tasty strike from Boris Prokopic added some gloss to the victory in the 90th minute as Rapid ran out convincing 4:0 winners, re-establishing their championship credentials. tipp3-Bundesliga, 28th round:Admira - SK Rapid 0:4 (0:1)Trenkwalder-Arena, 9.000, Referee Drachta Goals: 0:1 Hofmann (22.), 0:2 Alar (72.), 0:3 Seebacher (85./Own Goal), 0:4 Prokopic (90.) Admira: Tischler - Plassnegger, Ebner, Drescher, Auer - Seebacher, Thürauer (83./Schwab), D. Toth - Sabitzer (58./R. Schicker), Zeman (67./Jezek) SK Rapid: Novota - Thonhofer, Sonnleitner, Soma, Schrammel - Heikkinen, Kulovits - G. Burgstaller (56./Nuhiu), Hofmann (87./Prokopic), Grozurek (71./Drazan) - Alar Yellow Cards: Toth, Plassnegger Burgstaller, Schrammel, Nuhiu (gw)
10.04.2012