With only the suspended Thomas Schrammel missing, a near full strength Rapid side went into the weekends top clash in the tipico Bundesliga against RB Salzburg, in front of an impressive 25,300 onlookers. The Hütteldorfers were looking to secure their fourth victory on the trot, while Salzburg, by contrast, had won only one of their last six competitive outings. However as the game got underway it was clear the the guests weren't suffering any hangovers from their previous poor displays and a difficult, intense match began to unfold. Testing half for the Rapid rearguardIn the early exchanges in the first half Rapid required a mixture of skill and luck to ensure the deadlock remained in tact: firstly Mario Pavelic (8.) did well to turn a dangerous ball across the face of the goal behind for a corner, before Jan Novota kept out a good headed effort by Salzburg captain Soriano (9.). The Spaniard later tried his luck with a long range effort that crept just wide of the far upright (29.). Towards the end of the half a bit more space opened up as the game became slightly stretched, and this lead to Rapid's best effort of the half: (36.) hot on the heels of a long range shot that went just millimetres wide from young Salzburg midfielder Keita (36.), Rapid skipper Steffen Hofmann almost grabbed the lead for the Green & Whites, but his deflected shot from the left hand corner of the penalty area spun agonisingly wide of Gulacsi's far post (40.). The last goalmouth action of the half was produced by ex-Rapid man Marcel Sabitzer, who burst down the right flank and into the box, only to be denied by a great reflex save from Jan Novota (42.).The second half saw Salzburg up the tempo another notch, with Rapid dropping deeper as they unfortunately struggled to find an answer. Time and again the guests carved through the midfield to create presentable shooting opportunities, such as that not capitalised upon by Schmitz shortly after the hour mark (63.). Zoran Barisic attempted to stem the flow of Salzburg attacks by introducing Thanos Petsos in place of Steffen Hofmann, as he looked to beef up the midfield. A deflected Stefan Schwab effort that went out for a corner proved to be the best Rapid could muster during this difficult phase of the game (72.).Late goals for Salzburg as pressure finally tellsJust as it seemed that Rapid might be able to battle to a credible point, the guests grabbed the goal they had been threatening - and then quickly added another. Substitute Bruno scored with his first touch, beating Jan Novota low to his left with a decent shot on the turn making it 0:1 (85.). The goal still didn't let up the constant pressure, and minutes later Kevin Kampl fed the ball low across the Rapid six yard box to Alan, who had the simple task of tapping home into an empty net to make it 0:2 (89.). There was a mini highlight in the closing stages for the Hütteldorfers: getting on the end of a headed flick on from Mario Sonnleitner was substitute Philipp Prosenik, who managed to direct his header over the line from close range, despite the efforts of Ramalho on the line (90.). But the goal came deep into stoppage time, and as soon as play got underway again the full time whistle went and having enjoyed a successful week it was confirmed that Rapid's winning streak had been ended.tipico-Bundesliga, Match Day 10:SK Rapid - RB Salzburg 1:2 (0:0)Ernst-Happel-Stadium, 25.300 Attendance, Ref Eisner.Goals: 0:1 Bruno (84.), 0:2 Alan (89.), 1:2 Prosenik (93.)SK Rapid: Novota - Pavelic, Sonnleitner, Dibon, Stangl - Schwab, Wydra - Schaub, S. Hofmann (66./Petsos), F. Kainz (73./Schobesberger) - Beric (84./Prosenik)RB Salzburg: Gulacsi - Lazaro, Ilsanker, Ramalho, Schmitz - Kampl, Keita, Ch. Leitgeb, Sabitzer (84./Bruno) - Alan (92./Laimer), Soriano (77./Quaschner)Yellow Cards: Wydra, Schwab Ramalho, Ilsanker(gw)
28.09.2014