Trainer Zoran Barisic had a few injury headaches to contend with going into the 311th Vienna Derby on Sunday, particularly at the back. Suspended defensive stalwart Mario Sonnleitner was unavailable having been sent off in Altach, whilst natural replacement Max Hofmann missed out through injury. Stefan Schwab also missed out through injury, but there was good news for Barisic as Christopher Dibon and Dominik Wydra returned from spells on the treatment table. The former lined up in central defence alongside Stefan Stangl.Trailing at half timeThe game took a while to get going and unfortunately when it did it was the fans from Favoriten celebrating: an innocuous looking ball down the right flank caught the Rapid defence napping, and Damari cashed in, driving into the box before shooting across Jan Novota from a tight angle to score with what looked a fairly tame effort - 0:1 (23.). The Hütteldorfers looked for a way back into the match but the best they could muster was a Wydra effort that comfortably cleared the crossbar after good work from Florian Kainz. Five minutes before half time things got worse for the Green & Whites when Damari received a low cross from the right hand flank with his back to goal, and having been afforded far too much space he spun and lashed home a left footed strike from ten meters leaving Novota with no chance - 0:2 (40.) and a mountain to climb in the second half.Second half improvement not enoughA determined Rapid outfit emerged for the second half and looked the better of the two sides. The positive start to the second half should have been rewarded with a goal when Kainz again got in behind the Austria defence, cutting the ball back to Thanos Petsos, who despite connecting sweetly with the ball, guided his effort wide from a great position (52.). Petsos was then quickly involved at the other end of the pitch as he played the ball back to Novota who inadvertently gathered the pass in with his hands. From the resulting indirect free-kick Grünwald nearly punished Rapid's sloppy play, but his shot crashed into the foot of the post and away to safety (54.). Unsurprisingly a game of cat and mouse developed, as the Green & Whites desperate need for a goal saw Austria drop deeper and look to break out on quick counters. When the killer third did arrive, it was came about again indirectly from a ball into the box as Gorgon knocked a cross back to the newly introduced Royer, who hit a superb shot form the edge of the area with the outside of his right boot, beating Novota at the near post - 0:3 (79.). The Hüttledorfers kept going however and managed to bag a couple of consolations to take the sting out of the scoreline. Firstly substitute Deni Alar nipped into to beat Austria keeper Heinz Lindner to the ball, poking home to give some renewed hope (83.), but by the time Robert Beric grabbed a second after capitalising on a mix up in the Violets defence (92.) it was clear that it was going to be too little too late. Trainer Zoran Barisic: "Not a nice afternoon. We were asleep for the first 20 minutes and just not at the races. After the break we applied some pressure, took risks, but rather than getting the goal to get us back in we conceded a third. We just weren't clinical or sharp enough."tipico-Bundesliga, Match Day 15:SK Rapid - FK Austria Ernst-Happel-Stadium, 28.000, Ref HarkamGoals: 0:1 (23.) Damari, 0:2 (40.) Damari, 0:3 (79.) Royer, 1:3 (83.) Alar, 2:3 (90.) BericSK Rapid: Novota – Pavelic, Dibon, Stangl, Schrammel – Petsos, Wydra (45. Alar) – Schaub (72. Schobersberger), Hofmann, Kainz (86. Starkl) – BericFK Austria: Lindner – Larsen (77. Koch), Shikov, Rotpuller, Salamon – Holland, Leitgeb – Gorgon, Grünwald, Meilinger (77. Royer) – Damari (90. Serbest)Yellow Cards: Petsos, Alar, Dibon Salaman, Larsen, Rotpuller, Lindner, Shikov (gw)
12.11.2014