Europa League Here We Come!

For the second leg of the UEFA Europa League play-off in Zaporizhzhya against Zorya Luhansk, head coach Didi Kühbauer had to do without Richard Strebinger. In his place, Pauli Gartler started between the goalposts. Compared to last weekend's home win over SV Ried, there were only slight changes made in midfield. Srdjan Grahovac returned to the starting eleven replacing Dejan Petrovic, Kelvin Arase and Taxi Fountas were alongside Marco Grüll in the attacking trio behind striker Ercan Kara.

Sitting on a 3-0 lead, it was clear that an early away goal would mean that the Green & Whites could almost touch the group stages. It’s easy to say that, but we went and did it too! The midfield was quickly bypassed via Fountas, and the through ball to Grüll, who had popped up perfectly in the hole, could not have been weighted better. Our number 27 took advantage of his speed against the defenders, ran from a tight angle towards the opponent's goal, and even kept his composure when finishing - GOOOOAL! 1-0 (9’)! It was undoubtedly a perfect start, and it got even better. First, however, goalkeeper Gartler had to dig an unpleasant low shot from the home side out to prevent it finding the corner of his net. At the other end, the ball landed right at Greiml's feet after a corner and he took the opportunity with the instincts of a predatory striker, 2-0 (15’)! After a good quarter of an hour the tie was essentially decided - Rapid led by an aggregate score of 5-0!

Despite the score line, the home side had a little period of pressure, but lacked the accuracy to score. In the 32nd minute, Ullmann was able to run at speed towards the back line; the defence failed to close him down, and thus invited our full-back to shoot from the edge of the penalty area. With his fingertips, the Luhansk goalkeeper just about touched the ball over the top and thus prevented a third Rapid goal early in the match. Though the tie was dead, the second leg itself was anything but decided. That was confirmed when the Ukrainians headed home a cross from down field to reduce the score to 2-1 on the night, five minutes before the break.

The Hütteldorfers came out of the dressing room unchanged. Luhansk did not necessarily increase the pressure after the break, but rather the bite in their challenges. First an outstretched leg caught Grahovac and then another clipped Grüll. Fortunately, both were able to continue after a short treatment break - very important in views of Sunday’s game. The first moment of danger was again one of ours in the second half. Grüll teed up Fountas in the penalty area, but the ball bobbled off his foot - a pity, because our striker would only have had the goalkeeper left to beat (55’)!

Then, our striking partnership of Fountas & Kara showed off their moves! Substitute Schuster played the ball in behind the defence to Kara, who, alone in front of the goalkeeper, squared unselfishly to Fountas; 3-1 (68’)! This meant that the second leg was pretty much decided. Only two minutes later Fountas put a lob over the on-rushing keeper and just over the bar - it would have been the icing on the cake had it gone in (70’). Shortly after the start of the Rapid quarter-hour, Gartler distinguished himself in a one-on-one duel with an impressive reflex save, and thus secured the lead for the time being (77’). We say, for the time being, because in the 85th minute a foul from Schick was penalised inside the box, and the resulting penalty was converted unstoppably into the right-hand corner; 3-2 (85’). With the very next attack from the home side, the whistle blew once more and the referee again pointed to the penalty spot for handball. The same taker, the same corner - but Gartler dived in time and made a superb stop (87’). With that penalty save, Gartler preserved our lead, and eventually secured us an away win! We therefore won both legs against Zorya Luhansk, with the aggregate score line reading a mightily impressive 6-2!

It was all over in the Slavutych Arena in Zaporizhzhya, and after winning the play-off by a clear margin we can look forward to our ninth participation in the UEFA Europa League group stages in the last twelve years - bravo, Rapid!

Fotos: GEPA