Salzburg too strong again in a controversial top-two clash

The Bundesliga’s top two went head to head in a hotly anticipated game in Hütteldorf on Sunday, as Rapid aimed to break Salzburg´s five match winning streak in the league. Success against Salzburg has been hard to come by for Rapid in recent seasons, but a victory here would have been enough to move the Green and Whites to within one point of the league leaders. Head Coach Didi Kühbauer hoped that placing Kelvin Arase, Taxi Fountas and Marcel Ritzmaier behind centre forward Ercan Kara would lead to more goals, following the eight that Rapid managed last weekend in their demolition of WAC. The visitors had Patson Daka leading the line, as he attempted to score in his eighth consecutive appearance.

Salzburg came out of the blocks quickly in the game, as top-scorer Daka headed into the side-netting (2’) before the action came to an abrupt stop early on. An aerial duel led to a nasty clash of heads between Filip Stojkovic and Ercan Kara, but after a lengthy pause both players were able to continue. The visitors were quick to pick up the reigns again with Daka slotting the ball in after eleven minutes, but to the relief of those in Green and White, the offside flag was raised. Unfortunately Stojkovic was still feeling the effects of his earlier knock, and he had to be switched for Thorsten Schick as the opening 15 minutes were up.

The game was struggling to live up to its billing as the big clash of the Bundesliga weekend, as Salzburg pushed and Rapid repelled for the majority of the first half-hour. A looping shot from Wöber was tipped behind well by Richi Strebinger (27’), but breakthroughs at either end were proving hard to come by, especially for the Rapid strikers who were largely starved of the ball. Eventually the visitors did find a way through, and it came via a corner kick. Junuzovic’s delivery was headed powerfully onto the near post by Mwepu, and the ricochet fell kindly for Ramalho to poke home into an open goal (37’). Salzburg only mustered one more effort in the first half as Daka fired over in injury-time, but Rapid would need to create a lot more if we were going to take anything from the second half.

After the break, action got back underway in the worst possible fashion for the home faithful. Despite making contact with the ball, Max Hofmann was adjudged to have brought down Daka, and received his marching orders just seconds after the restart; a very harsh looking dismissal to everyone on the sidelines. With the whole second half still to play Rapid unsurprisingly found themselves on the back foot, and Didi Kühbauer’s half time team talk will have gone out of the window. Leo Greiml was brought on to patch up the defensive hole left by Hofmann’s red card, and Salzburg laid siege to the penalty area. Mateo Barac had to head clear off the goal line after one particularly dangerous goalmouth scramble (53’), and unfortunately he too had to leave the field after picking up an injury a little later on. Srdjan Grahovac and Koya Kitagawa entered the fray with 20 minutes remaining, as Rapid looked to upset the odds and find a badly needed goal from somewhere.

Aaronson’s shot forced Strebinger into a flying save (73’), but Salzburg were still keen on finding a second goal, as Rapid began to show small glimpses of remaining hope and self-belief. The Green and Whites have managed 13 goals in the “Rapid quarter-hour” over the course of this season, was just one more too much to ask? The next “goal” belonged to Salzburg in any case, but Mwepu’s shot was the latest to be chalked off by the linesman’s flag, despite the ball taking a deflection off Greiml (79’). That left Rapid with ten minutes if we were to grab an unlikely leveller.

Shots from Daka (80’) and Aaronson (83’) were well held by Strebinger, but would there be a moment at the other end? As we threw everything at Salzburg, Arase broke away down the left for our biggest chance of the game, but his shot from outside the box was deflected over the bar by Ramalho (85’). With everyone forward hoping for an equaliser, it was no surprise that Rapid were exposed, and in injury-time, Adeyemi slotted in to make it 2-0 and secure the result. He even added a third with the last kick of the game (90’+4). It was a tough battle, and a tough day for Rapid right from the start, with injuries, a red card and a defeat in the end. We’ll regroup for our next game against Sturm at home on Sunday.

Fotos: GEPA