UECL: Arnhem is the end of the road for Rapid

On Thursday evening, we were away in the Netherlands, facing Vitesse Arnhem for a historic place in the last 16 of the UEFA Europa Conference League. Roughly 600 hardy Rapid fans made the journey to the GelreDome in Arnhem to watch Ferdinand Feldhofer’s team, as Niki Hedl celebrated his European debut in the Green and White goal.

Disappointingly, the match didn’t start as he, or any of us, wanted. Much like in the first leg there was an early goal, only this time it was against us. A ball through was slammed home by Grbic for 1-0, levelling the tie on aggregate at 2-2 (3’). After the early setback we took a bit of time to settle into the game, but we went close after 18 minutes. Marco Grüll played the ideal through ball towards Robert Ljubicic, but at the last second he was denied by the Vitesse goalkeeper. It proved pivotal, as with the very next attack, Bero made it 2-0 to the hosts, putting the ahead in the tie for the first time (19’). We tried to push for an equaliser of our own, and a nice free kick from Marco Grüll was on target, but saved by the keeper’s gloves (32’). There was no breakthrough before the interval, so we went in after a tough opening period, trailing 3-2 on aggregate.

The second half started with both teams evenly matched, yet decisive scoring chances were missing in the first 15 minutes. Ferdinand Feldhofer reacted with an offensive double switch, Yusuf Demir and Thorsten Schick made room for Christoph Knasmüllner and Koya Kitagawa (57’). Just three minutes later Marco Grüll sent a free kick into the penalty area well, but it sailed over Rapid heads by just millimetres (60’). In the following minutes, European Cup debutant Niki Hedl stood out, preventing the third goal from being conceded with some fine play (69’). Ten minutes later, there was another difficult moment, as the ball was in the Rapid net once more - but the goal was ruled out for offside (77’). Another double change was needed to bring some fresh late impetus; our captain Srdjan Grahovac and Jonas Auer went off, and in came Dejan Petrovic and Philipp Schobesberger, who celebrated his comeback in the first team after a long injury break (81’). In the end, the changes didn’t make the required impact, and after 95 minutes the 2-0 defeat was confirmed, meaning that we lost the tie 3-2 on aggregate.

Despite a good starting position, our journey in the UEFA Europa Conference League ended in Arnhem. It was without doubt a painful evening for all Rapid players and supporters, so now we’ll have to analyse it, take a deep breath and gather all our strength for the important Bundesliga away match against WSG on Sunday. Don’t give up, Rapid!

Fotos: GEPA