Rapid went into the match denied the services of Robert Beric following his red card against Graz last time out, in his place leading the line was Lukas Grozurek. The early signs indicated that Grozurek and his teammates were in for a difficult afternoon against a compact Altach side that were happy to sit deep in their own half and sacrifice any thoughts of attacking in favour of having ten men behind the ball. The pickings were extremely slim in the first half, with a Steffen Hofmann free kick (18.) and a Louis Schaub shot (38.) the best either side could muster.The Green & Whites emerged for the second half without departed Captain Hofmann, who landed on his head following an aerial dual in the first period and suffered from dizziness during half time. In his place came Philip Schobesberger and the substitute brought some momentum with him: following some quality wing play he played the ball low into a dangerous area in the Altach box, but under the pressure of a potential own goal a visiting defender managed to turn the ball behind for a corner, just getting to the cross before the lurking Grozurek (61.).Stung by classic smash and grabNot long afterwards Altach capitalised on their one venture into Rapid territory: Pecirep beat a suspect looking Hütteldorfer offside trap to go through on Jan Novota before managing to poke the ball left to Ngwat-Mahop who had kept up with play, to stroke the ball into an empty net - 0:1 (70.).Just minutes later Rapid had a golden chance to equalise, but it went begging: substitute Prosenik battled hard to win the ball and lay it off to Schaub in the Altach box, but his shot was far too central to trouble away keeper Kobras, who comfortably gathered the ball (74.). It was Schaub who would come closest to rescuing a point when his jinking run into the Altach box ended with a superb curling effort that grazed Kobras's crossbar (81.). A flurry of late free kicks failed to yield a goal and Rapid went down to a frustrating smash and grab defeat against an Altach side that had executed their plan perfectly.tipico Bundesliga, Matchday 5SK Rapid - Altach 0:1 (0:0)Ernst-Happel-Stadium, 13.800, Ref HameterGoal: 0:1 Ngwat-Mahop (70.)SK Rapid: Novota - Pavelic, Sonnleitner, Dibon, Schrammel - Petsos, Wydra - Schaub, S. Hofmann (46. Schobesberger), F. Kainz (57. Prosenik) - Grozurek (74. Starkl)Altach: Kobras - Lienhart, A. Pöllhuber, Zwischenbrugger, Gercaliu - Netzer - Seeger (62. Tajouri), Roth, P. Salomon (68. Prokopic), Ngwat-Mahop - Pecirep (80. Aigner)Yellow Cards: Wydra, Schrammel, Schobesberger Zwischenbrugger, A. Pöllhuber, Aigner, Netzer(gw)
18.08.2014