Zoran Barisic had the luxury of an almost fully fit squad to choose from ahead of Sunday's tipp3-Bundesliga clash in Tivoli. Forward Guido Burgstaller had recovered sufficiently from his recent knock to take a place on the bench, but the news wasn't so positive for Branko Boskovic who missed the game having picked up an injury whilst on international duty for Montenegro in mid-week. With two convincing wins over Wacker already this season, Rapid took to the field full of confidence and in the knowledge victory would bring them right onto the coat tails of second placed Grödig. The early stages were dominated by Green & White, for whom Marcel Sabitzer registered the games first effort on goal (7.). An Innsbruck side visibly low on confidence were struggling to make an attacking impression, which made it all the more surprising when they stole ahead with their first real forward action of the afternoon: a corner was only half cleared by Rapid, the ball eventually making its way to Ji-Parana on the right who floated the ball to an alarmingly unmarked Lukas Hinterseer at the back post to nod a simple header past the scrambling Jan Novota - 1:0 (22).The goal seemed to rattle Rapid, who would have been hoping for a more positive start against a team cut adrift at the foot of the table. Brian Behrendt tried to rectify the situation with a long range effort (26.), before a decent free kick from Hofmann was saved by Safar (28.). The remainder of the half played out with both teams unable to muster any clear further openings. Rapid were having more of the ball, but were lacking a creative spark in the final third.Chances begin to flow in the second halfJust minutes after half time Terrence Boyd had the chance level but failed to get his shot on target after being found by Marcel Sabitzer's cut back (47.). Sabitzer himself then had a shot saved for Safar after being set up by intelligent play from Louis Schaub (49.), as Rapid finally began to exert some real pressure on the home side's defence. A string of good positions and half chances weren't capitalised on by the Green & Whites, before a headed effort from Boyd again failed to find the target (58.), whilst a stinging drive from long range expert Thanos Petsos went narrowly over the cross bar (60.). With Rapid well on top, Barisic attempted to turn the screw, sending on Guido Burgstaller to ramp up the pressure another notch. With little under twenty minutes to play Rapid carved open Innsbruck, leaving Boyd with a golden opportunity centrally positioned just ten yards from goal but the US striker scuffed his shot and the effort was saved by Safar (72.). After surviving a few scares at the other end of the pitch, Rapid finally forced the equaliser: with the Innsbruck defence horribly out of place Marcel Sabitzer crossed to Deni Alar who took advantage of the acres of space in the six-yard box to powerfully head the ball into the near side of the goal - 1:1 and a point rescued (88.). A frantic last few minutes yielded another chance for Hinterseer, but committed defending from the Rapid back line saw off the danger and preserved the hard fought draw. Trainer Zoran Barisic: "In the first half we struggled to get out of first gear, and that isn't good enough. But the team fought hard to put that right. We obviously can't be too happy with the result, but the performance wasn't bad. We only got going in the second half, as in Salzburg. Its a shame we couldn't produce a ninety minute performance.”tipp3-Bundesliga, Match Day 26Wacker Innsbruck - SK Rapid 1:1 (1:0)Innsbruck, Tivoli Stadium Tirol, 6.213 Attendance, Ref SchörgenhoferGoals: 1:0 (18.) Hinterseer, 1:1 (88.) AlarWacker Innsbruck: Safar - Bergmann, Djokic, Vucur, Nitzlnader - Kofler (46./Wallner), Ji-Parana - Schütz, Milosevic (79./Siller), Hinterseer - Edomwonyi (55./Gründler)SK Rapid: Novota - Trimmel, Sonnleitner, Behrendt, Schrammel - Wydra, Petsos (87./Grozurek) - Schaub (81./Alar), Hofmann (68./Burgstaller), Sabitzer - BoydYellow Cards: Schütz, Vucur, Djokic, Ji-Parana Sonnleitner(gw)
10.03.2014