Rapid score eight in a historic away win over WAC

Rapid kicked off the Championship Group away in Carinthia on Sunday, hunting for a third win of the season against WAC, and a perfect start to the final ten Bundesliga fixtures. Wolfsberg were in free-scoring form before the international break, recording a 5-3 defeat and, amazingly, a 5-3 win the following weekend. Rapid hadn’t been involved in so many thrillers, but were at least unbeaten in the last four Bundesliga matches. On his 50th birthday, Head Coach Didi Kühbauer opted to start with a 4-2-3-1, placing Ercan Kara (fresh from his national team debut) up-front ahead of ex-WAC man Marcel Ritzmaier, Taxi Fountas and Thorsten Schick. Christoph Knasmüllner was waiting on the bench, as was Koya Kitagawa, who returned after an injury.

With action underway at the Lavanttal Arena, Rapid established an early upper-hand. From a corner we carved out the first chance, but Fountas’ effort was saved by Kofler (6’). Regular chances weren’t falling our way after that, yet our boys in their blue and red away colours remained extremely comfortable, and didn’t have to wait too long for a deserved opener. Another corner was delivered towards the back post by Schick, and Fountas was there to somehow jump, spin and flick the ball down into the net (22’)! The next dramatic moment also involved a corner ball, and this time it was the home team on the attack. As the ball fell to Lochoshvili, the Georgian attempted a wild overhead effort, but caught Kara in the head and received his third red card of the season for the indiscretion (29’).

Keep to make the most of the numerical advantage, Rapid struck while the iron was still hot! Filip Stojkovic played in Kara inside the area, and with a defender still to beat he placed an audacious lob into the corner, which Kofler could grasp, but not keep out. 2-0 (32’). With the advantage doubled, we were cruising, until WAC reminded Rapid of what the Championship Group is all about. One misplaced pass in the midfield, and Liendl was free to shoot at goal. His shot was parried by Richi Strebinger, but Röcher was in just the right spot to head home and half the deficit for the hosts. (39’). We headed for the changing rooms holding a 2-1 lead, with the game suddenly alive again.

The action certainly didn’t let up in the second half, and once Maxi Ullmann had blazed over from the left (49’), Röcher found himself unmarked with a free-header to level the scores for WAC, but thankfully for Rapid he nodded the ball wide (53’). If anything, that chance acted as a wake up call for our team, and they suddenly put the pedal to the metal in quite incredible fashion. We should have restored our two-goal cushion when Dejan Ljubicic advanced into the box and squared for Ritzmaier, yet somehow Kofler prevented his old teammate from scoring despite being a brilliant position (54’). All was to be forgiven and forgotten in the following minutes though...

First, Ritzmaier laid off to Ullmann on the left who cut back inside and curled in a lovely goal, which was amazingly his first of the season; 3-1 (57’). Before WAC had settled, Rapid had scored a carbon copy of WAC’s goal, with Ljubicic’s shot saved, and Fountas heading in the rebound; 4-1 (58’). His hat-trick was complete just three minutes later, when a long, switching ball was delightfully controlled by Schick to put it on a plate for the Greek striker to slot in; 5-1 (61’)!

That made it the first time this season Rapid had registered five goals, but we weren’t done yet! First came a bizarre scene where WAC continued to play briefly with eleven players after some fumbled substituting, and then came Rapid’s sixth goal, a cross being fired in by a combination of Scherzer and Max Hofmann (70’). Two substitutes then combined to make it seven; Kelvin Arase tormented the defence further with a winding run down the left, and his pass was knocked over the line by Yusuf Demir (78’). The unfortunate Scherzer got a second own goal to make it 8-1, as he headed into his own net under pressure from Leo Greiml (84’), and Ljubicic still had time to see a fierce long shot tipped over by a beleaguered Kofler in the WAC goal (89’).

Once the dust has settled from this one Rapid can look back on an unbelievable start to the Championship Round, a biggest league win since 2008 (8-1 vs Altach) and a biggest away win since the same season (7-0 away at Salzburg). How about that for a Happy Birthday, Didi?!

Link: Rapid TV zum 8:1 in Wolfsberg