A dream goal from Demir breaks Ried’s resistance

After picking up only a solitary point from the past two Bundesliga fixtures, Rapid were firmly targeting a return to winning ways with the visit of SV Ried to Hütteldorf on Match Day 19. With much of the media build-up focusing on Ried’s record of no victories in their last 40 visits to the Green & White half of Vienna, Rapid appeared to be the obvious favourites, but Head Coach Didi Kühbauer was quick to point out that statistics don’t always reflect the difficulty of the task in hand, especially considering the curious 4-3 defeat that we suffered away against the same opposition earlier this season.

 Personnel-wise, the gaze of many (absent) followers was on Marco Grüll, with the young Ried attacker in the unusual position of lining up against his future teammates. For Rapid, Kelvin Arase and Leo Greiml were handed starts as Christoph Knasmüllner and Marcel Ritzmaier began on the bench, with Ercan Kara and Taxi Fountas making up a starting XI with plenty of goal-scoring potential.

The freshly treated turf at the Allianz Stadium meant that the pitch was ready for the two teams to play free-flowing football if they so desired, and although there wasn’t too much of that in the opening ten minutes, captain Dejan Ljubicic did register the first efforts of the game after passes from Maxi Ullmann (7’) and Mateo Barac (9’). A deflected Fountas strike (11’) led to one of several early Rapid corners, but Ullmann’s crosses were causing Ried bigger problems. One such ball found Fountas who failed to pick out a teammate from a tight angle (13’), and the next was headed into the net by Thorsten Schick, only for the home side to be denied by a very tough offside call (16’) - something of a sore point of late.

With Rapid clearly retaining the upper-hand, Ullmann himself was the first player to truly test Sahin-Radlinger in the Ried goal, as a fierce left-footed volley needed tipping over the crossbar (31’). Fountas was then fed nicely by Arase, and the Greek striker slid a pass from the byline through the keeper’s legs and right across the face of goal, but agonisingly no attackers were in position to grab the opener (33). Fittingly, given the red, yellow and green shirts on display, the action could be described as one-way traffic, with Ried’s first hint of a chance coming via Möschl’s shot which flew wide after 40 minutes of Rapid dominance. Nonetheless, no goals were scored before the break, and the hosts would have to capitalise on their superiority in the second half.

Fountas stung the palms of Sahin-Radlinger soon after the break with a low shot (50’), and his next effort from a set-piece routine sailed over via a deflection (51’), as Rapid resumed the action in the same manner they had left off. Richi Strebinger had to get down to make his first big save of the game to keep out Nutz’s strike (53’), and the resulting corner went just inches past the far post following Schmidt’s close range header; a moment which underlined the need for Rapid to get in front!

With the visitors beginning to find a foothold in the game, Ritzmaier replaced Arase (58’), yet soon after, Ried were forced to remove a player of their own when Boateng received a second yellow card (62’). Rapid’s numerical advantage only meant that the visitors would start to sit tight in defence; just under half an hour remained for Rapid to find the breakthrough. As we adjusted to Ried’s ultra-defensive set-up, chances were proving hard to come by. Eventually Dejan Petrovic’s long-ranger needed punching away (74’); a shot which woke the side up on the eve of the Rapid quarter-hour.

Yusuf Demir was introduced as the search to unlock Ried’s defence continued, and his run into the box so nearly made the difference, before Sahin-Radlinger came up with a vital toe-poked stop (80’). Greiml made way for Knasmüllner with Kühbauer’s last tactical roll of the dice (85’), but when Schick’s volley sliced just into the side-netting (87’) it looked like it wasn’t to be Rapid’s day. Ljubicic forced another fingertip save (88’) as the Green & Whites refused to give up, and lo and behold, their efforts were rewarded right at the death! Demir was the man (or boy!) to lead the team to victory with a stunning left-footed strike which curled and curled before slamming into the top corner of the Ried goal: 1-0 (90’)! Ried’s resistance was broken with no time left to respond, leaving the home side to reflect on the game with three points in hand. RAPID!

Fotos: GEPA

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