A treble from Taxi Fountas fires us to the win against WAC

Fresh from our 3-0 win in European qualifying on Thursday, Rapid headed into a game against Wolfsberg with three points the express target to help kick-start our young Bundesliga campaign. Despite the exertions of Thursday evening, a number of small injury niggles in the squad made it little surprise that Head Coach Didi Kühbauer retained the same starting XI, with Ercan Kara spearheading a 4-2-3-1 formation, Taxi Fountas in behind, and Kelvin Arase mirroring Marco Grüll on the flanks.

Even with the home fans roaring us on in Hütteldorf on Sunday, it wasn’t our attacking players who started the busiest, but rather our defenders needed to be up to speed from the get-go, as WAC raced into a 5-0 lead of sorts inside 15 minutes (thankfully only in the “shots taken” category, and not “goals scored”)! A particularly pressing moment in the opening phase required a high risk challenge from captain Max Hofmann, as he dived into a tackle to deny Taferner inside the area. It was a crucial block, but our visitors felt a little hard done by not to come away with a penalty.

With the first quarter-of-an-hour over, the early tide suddenly shifted Rapid’s way, and when we turned the ball over in our own half, Kara spread a pass down to Arase on the right wing. He still had plenty to do, and our number 36 did it with aplomb, darting into the box, cutting back and finishing from the angle. Alas, 1-0 it was not to be, as VAR intervened for an infringement in Ullmann’s tackle from which the move began. WAC had their luck repaid, and the scores remained goalless (16’). Undeterred, our boys in Green & White held on to their new found momentum, and it wasn’t long before we had a goal that we could keep on the board. The ever-industrious Ullmann burst forward towards the area before curling a shot against the far post. His own follow-up was parried by goalkeeper Kuttin, but Taxi Fountas was there to twist his body and fire in the opening goal! 1-0 (22’).

Our clashes with the Carinthians tend to be battles out on the pitch and this one was no different, as yellow cards on both sides began to punctuate the first half. Ercan Kara proved that he was up for the fight, first by shrugging off a number of fouls and shirt-pulls to hit a shot at goal which sailed over. Then, just after the half-hour mark, he used his strength superbly to out-muscle a defender near the touchline, before floating an inch perfect cross into the area for Fountas. The striker brought the ball down well, but under heavy pressure his shot, and then an effort from Arase, was blocked by the WAC defence (32’).

The guests forced their way back into the action after a spell of Rapid pressure, and they came close to a leveller, especially when a back-pedalling header from striker Baribo came back off the upright and happily into the hands of Richi Strebinger (34’). Baribo had another go eight minutes later, but when a cushioned ball was played across the box for him, he sliced wide after some unwanted attention from the Rapid defence. The offside flag went up, but it was nonetheless a let-off for us, and our team did their best to react before half time. Thorsten Schick’s signature front-post corner almost worked again in a carbon copy of one of our goals from Thursday evening, but this time Greiml somehow couldn’t get the ball over the line, and ended up in the netting himself (43’). It was the young defender again who was picked out from a free kick in added time, but despite an excellent run into space, his header was over the bar, meaning it remained 1-0 at the interval.

After a slow start in the first half, Rapid had no such hesitations in the second period. Just seven minutes after the restart, Taxi Fountas doubled our advantage! Grüll got into a good position on the left of the area, and with two attempts to pull the ball back to a teammate, he found Fountas in a central position well outside the box. The Greek striker pulled the trigger, and benefited from a significant deflection as his shot wrong-footed Kuttin and put us 2-0 up! (52’) If that goal was a touch fortunate, we proved that it was deserved by adding a third around 60 seconds later. Arase found space or the right wing, and as Kuttin dived down to get a hand on the low cross, Fountas was in the right place again to sweep the ball home and complete his hat-trick! 3-0 (53’).

 From that moment on Rapid retained complete control of the result, and WAC never looked likely to stage a comeback. Wernitznig did register a shot for the away team on the 70 minute mark, but that effort sailed wide, and it was the hosts who were much closer to getting another goal. Following a corner, Kara thought he had made it 4-0, yet Schuster was penalised for a handball in the box immediately before the shot, and Rapid therefore had another goal chalked off (75’).

Kara then made way for Benjamin Kanuric to celebrate his home debut, and as the final minutes ticked away, it was a time simply to conserve some energy and secure the comfortable win. Our first victory of the new Bundesliga season was completed in routine fashion, and as a warm up for Thursday’s game away against Anothorsis Famagusta it was a perfect rehearsal: more goals, more confidence, and now full focus on the second-leg in the Europa League qualifiers. RAPID!

Fotos: GEPA