4-1: Winter Friendlies off to a winning start in Wiener Neustadt

Week two of Rapid's winter-break training program brought test-match number one; a friendly against current regional league side Wiener Neustadt at their new stadium, and with free tickets on offer, a healthy crowd of around 1000 people braved the weather to enjoy the occasion. With sub-zero temperatures and a forecast of snow, an unsurprisingly youthful and experimental away side set out to heat things up out on the pitch.

Koya Kitagawa, a recent returnee from his long-term ankle injury, started up front, and could have opened the scoring just moments into the game, only to cushion a close-range volley wide of the post after Bozic's knock-down (2’). Looking to shake off his rustiness and gain some match fitness, the Japanese striker kept plugging away, and when Christoph Knasmüllner nicked a loose ball, he fed Kitagawa inside the box, but the home keeper made a solid block (17’). 

Knasmüllner himself had looked dangerous too, shooting across the face of goal a couple of times in the early stages before the hosts opened the scoring against the run of play (25'). A low ball in from the left found a dangerous path, and when Richard Strebinger couldn't hold on, Flögel had the simplest of tasks to knock the ball into the open net for 1-0. Pleasingly, the boys in Green and White fought back level within seconds, when Lion Schuster popped up to nod in a well-placed Knasmüllner free-kick (27’).

Kitagawa wanted his name on that score-sheet in the first half too, but a swift turn and shot from the edge of the box saw the ball sail just wide of the post with the keeper well beaten (36’). The threat didn’t subside though, and after a blistering 3-man break involving Kitagawa once more and Yusuf Demir, Bozic hit the final shot past the far post (40’), before Demir watched on as his deflected effort looped up and just over the crossbar (42’).