Following four games without a win, the match against Mattersburg unquestionably needed to yield 3 points for Rapid. Any other result was, prior to kick off, unthinkable. With this in mind Coach Peter Schöttel shuffled his pack: Heikkinen moved to centre back, Wydra came into the vacated defensive midfield position and Sabitzer started the game on the left wing. A positive start saw Rapid take the game to their opponents, the first chance arriving when Steffen Hofmann tested Mattersburg keeper Borentisch with a free kick (10.). Rather than sit back and hide the guests came out to meet their illustrious hosts head on, launching into full blooded tackles and making Rapid earn the right to play. The Green & Whites were prepared for a fiery contest, but what followed was definitely not in the script: having showed little going forwards, Mattersburg won a free kick, Bürger took it, and beat Königshofer all ends up finding the top corner from all of 25 yards (20.).  Searching for a way through It didn't take long for Rapid to recover and just minutes later Borentisch denied Sabitzer after the winger had been set up by Captain Steffen Hofmann. As Rapid pressed for an equalizer it seemed that Mattersburg fancied their chances of grabbing a second on the break: firstly Röcher fired wide of the target, then Farkas caused problems for the Rapid defence with a dangerous cross-come-shot that Lukas Königshofer did well to scramble to safety (36. & 38.). Rapid heads were in hands just three minutes later when a superb Sabitzer free kick beat Borentisch only for the ball to crash against the crossbar. Borentisch was having an inspired day as he then denied firstly Boyd then Hofmann, both from close range in the minutes before half time. The Mattersburg goal was certainly leading a charmed life and somehow Rapid went into their half time team talk one goal adrift. Rapid rally from behindFinally a second of the afternoon arrived in the 49th minute, but incredibly it went to the away side: a very high Rapid backline was outfoxed by Farkas who raced down the flank before crossing to Gartner who calmly finished off the move to double Mattersburg's advantage. Peter Schöttel reacted by throwing Deni Alar into the action as the Green & Whites looked to recover a two goal deficit. Hope was restored in the 60th minute when Boyd latched onto a Schrammel ball into the box and beat the seemingly invincible Borentisch (60.). Deni Alar then fully vindicated his coaches decision to send him on: following good build up play involving Hofmann and Boyd, the young striker controlled the ball with his back to goal, swiveled and fired the ball past Borentisch to level the scores with still over 20 minutes left to play (67.).  After the equaliser it was only possible to imagine one winner as Rapid poured forward in search of a third. Deni Alar passed up the chance to double his tally for the afternoon shooting high over the crossbar when well positioned (73.). Schöttel looked to capitalise on the momentum and in a last throw of the dice sent on Kulovits and Schaub. The changes didn't bring the desired effect, Mattersburg managed to calm the situation and Rapid slowly began to run out of ideas: a Schrammel long shot was as good as it got for the Viennese who slowly had to accept that the third goal wasn't going to materialize. Next up for Rapid is a home fixture on the coming Saturday against Admira.tipp3-Bundesliga, 25th round:SK Rapid - Mattersburg 2:2 (0:1)Gerhard Hanappi-Stadion, 11.800 Attendance, Referee HarkamGoals: 0:1 (20.) Bürger, 0:2 (50.) Gartner, 1:2 (60.) Boyd, 2:2 (67.) Alar SK Rapid: Königshofer – Trimmel, Sonnleitner, Heikkinen, Schrammel – Wydra (83. Kulovits), Pichler (54. Alar) – Sabitzer (83. Schaub), Hofmann, Burgstaller – Boyd Mattersburg: Borenitsch - Höller, Majstorovic, Mravac, Novak - Seidl (9. Röcher), Lovin, Prietl (33. Gartner), Farkas - Klemen (90. Naumoski), Bürger Yellow Cards: Sonnleitner, Burgstaller, Pichler, Trimmel, Heikkinen, Hofmann Bürger, Höller, Klemen, Naumoski, Röcher (gw)
19.03.2013