The 332nd Vienna Derby finishes all-square in Favoriten

The 332nd Vienna Derby undoubtedly made top-billing on Bundesliga match day 20, and both teams went into the classic capital city duel with a need for not only bragging rights, but also points. Hosts Austria are digging deep in the battle for a spot in the top six, whilst we required the victory to remain in touch at the top of the table. Yusuf Demir made waves with his injury time strike last time out against SV Ried, and he was rewarded with a place on the left-hand side of Didi Kühbauer’s starting line-up. Thorsten Schick began over on the right, with Taxi Fountas in a central role in behind Ercan Kara. Max Hofmann started in defence to complete Rapid’s back line in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The guests started the game on the front foot looking to control the tempo of the derby, and a Schick free kick eventually fell to Filip Stojkovic for the first shot of the match (2’), however, his powerful volley was blocked. At the other end, Djuricin has a shot of his own blocked (4’), but the first fifteen minutes of the contest flew by without any clear openings for either team. Hofmann put a header off target (17’), yet it was Djuricin’s next effort that was the first of the day to hit the target, albeit without troubling Richard Strebinger in the Rapid goal (23’). Shots continued to be blocked, and challenges tended to be won by both sets of defenders, but with the Green and Whites looking to avenge the one-sided draw from the last derby, we pushed on. Demir and Fountas combined on the edge of the area to set up our first promising action in the penalty area, but Kara was a split-second too late to get a shot away (28’). He did get a shot on target soon after, and Austria keeper Pentz struggled to get it to safety (32’) before Fountas played a one-two with Demir and eventually struck a shot over the bar (34’) as Rapid slowly gained the upper-hand. Monschein was the first to capture the ugly side of the derby day atmosphere with a cynical body-check on Demir, but overall the tie remained more of a battle fought at arm’s length. Sarkaria and Fountas then traded shots from outside the box which once again failed to hit the target, and the two teams headed to the changing rooms desperate to find a way to create more dangerous chances in the second half.

After the break, Rapid clearly came out of the blocks the quicker as a neat passing move opened space up for both Schick and Fountas, but a little hesitation was enough to miss out on a shooting chance for either (47’). Moments later Maxi Ullmann broke away down the left and threaded a pass through to Kara, whose shot flew over from a tight angle (52’), but clear cut chances were still proving hard to come by for either side. With referee Gishammer having to reach for his pocket more often (with cautions for Fitz, Martel & Barac) the game’s tempo was under threat, but Rapid remained the team on the attack; Fountas nipped in to capitalise on a moment of uncertainty in the Austria area, and he set up Kara who looked up and curled his shot inches past the far post (59’). We made most of the running going forward, but were beginning to leave more space in behind as well. Djuricin thought he’d made the most of that room when he pounced on a Strebinger save and had the ball in the net (64’), but he was rightfully called back after being well offside when the initial shot came in. With Austria gradually increasing as an attacking threat, coach Kühbauer looked to the bench as the Rapid quarter-hour came around: Demir came off for Christoph Knasmüllner, and we attempted to remain fresh in the final third.

A Schick corner was headed on towards Fountas at the back post, but despite some excellent control he could only volley over (79’). Martel then volleyed wide for Austria as both teams kept up their hopes of grabbing a winner (80’). Rapid certainly came closest to claiming victory when our next substitute Marcel Ritzmaier floated a cross deep into the box: Knasmüllner’s header beat the keeper but crashed back off the crossbar, and yet the chance was still alive, before Pentz thwarted Kara’s follow-up header with a reflex stop (90’).

We saved our best until last once again, but this time it wasn’t quite enough to earn the derby spoils, although Rapid have at least the consolation of remaining unbeaten in this season’s two meetings. It remains to be seen whether we will have more derbies to play this season, but our next fixture sees us hosting Hartberg on Sunday in Hütteldorf at 17:00. 

(tm)