A travelling band of 300 Rapid fans made their way to Amstetten on Friday confident of seeing the Green & Whites start their season with a win. The first round ÖFB Samsung Cup draw had thrown up a real David vs Goliath clash, and all the early signs were that Rapid would underline their status as heavy favourites and brush their hosts aside.Chance after chanceStraight from the kick off Rapid laid siege to the Amstetten goal. The first chance arrived in just the second minute when Amstetten goalkeeper Affengruber had to dash off his line to deny Thanos Petsos. Deni Alar then saw a goal-bound header spectacularly saved by the keeper (7.), before Affengruber again pulled off another spectacular save to keep out Steffen Hofmann's angled low drive (11.). It looked like Affengruber would finally be beaten as new signing Stefan Schwab went on a mazy run before delivering a pin point cross to Deni Alar at the back post, who, with the goal at his mercy, volleyed wide when he looked odds on to score (28.). The final concrete chance of the half fell to Louis Schaub, who was again denied by an inspired Affengruber in the Amstetten goal.Treacherous ConditionsThe opening minutes of the second half represented the best passage of the match for Amstetten, who, at least in territorial terms, managed to get on top of Rapid. It was the Hütteldorfers though who continued to be a constant threat: the first hearts-in-mouths moment for the Amstetten crowd arrived in the 50th minute when Louis Schaub came within inches of getting on the end of a dangerous cross. It was around this time that the heavens opened and rain began to fall. Initially Rapid were able to continue to demonstrate the clear gulf in class: Stefan Schwab drove forwards from midfield and unleashed the next shot on the Amstetten goal, a decent strike that would have troubled Affengruber had it not been deflected behind for a corner. As the rain started to lash down any thoughts of a controlled performance from Rapid went out the window: the pitch quickly became waterlogged, and with so many cup fairytales from the past, the rain had become a leveller and opened up a genuine possibility for Amstetten to pull off a giant killing. Conditions became so bad that at one point the referee was forced to temporarily halt proceedings.Game gets back underwayFollowing a 20 minute interval the referee decided the pitch had once more become playable. The rest of the second half was played out in atrocious conditions that saw the ball bogged down in midfield, with full blooded tackles and commitment the order of he day. In the dying minutes Rapid breathed a collective sigh of relief as Zemann's header missed the target by a matter of inches. The deadlock remained in tact however and the tie went into extra time.Extra timeRapid once again peppered the Amstetten goal with shots: Brian Behrendt struck the post with powerful low drive (92.), before a swift Green & White counter attack ended with substitute Robert Beric lifting the ball over the target (96.). With the lottery of a penalty shoot-out looming, Rapid finally found the breakthrough: following a corner an almighty goal-mouth scrambled ensued that culminated with Christopher Dibon heading the ball over the line from a metre out to break Amstetten hearts (117.)! The goal ended the plucky hosts resistance and secured dramatic late passage through to the next round for Rapid.Trainer Zoran Barisic: "In the cup the only thing that matters is reaching the next round. Before half time we dominated, unfortunately we didn't capitalise. In the second half the conditions were extreme. It was virtually impossible to play football. Happily, and fully deserved, we're through. We were desperate to get through and you could see this in the way the team set about the match. We've done better than this time last year, but there is still much to improve on."ÖFB-Samsung-Cup, 1st Round:SKU Ertl Glas Amstetten - SK Rapid 0:1 aet (0:0)Amstetten, 2800 Attendance (sold out), Ref FeichtingerGoal: 0:1 Dibon (117.)SK Rapid: Novota Behrendt, Sonnleitner, Dibon, Schrammel Petsos, Schwab (108. Wydra) S. Hofmann Schaub (85. Schobesberger), Alar, Grozurek (70. Beric)SKU Ertl Glas Amstetten: Affengruber Deinhofer, Keusch, Achleitner, Fahrngruber Plank Lachmayr, Wurm, Talir (71. Holzer), Teurezbacher Kozelsky (61. Zemann)(gw)
14.07.2014