Painful exit in the ÖFB Cup

After all the winter training, and the long break, it was finally time to return to competitive action with the ÖFB Cup Quarter-Final against TSV Hartberg. With plenty of personnel changes over the winter, a new-look squad included loan signing Ferdy Druijf and the returning Yusuf Demir on the bench. Several players, such as Taxi Fountas and Robert Ljubicic unfortunately had to miss out due to illness (not necessarily Covid-related).

In the icy temperatures of the Allianz Stadium, we were only allowed to welcome 2,000 spectators to the game, but they made enough noise to convince you that there were many more fans present. Rapid began putting on the pressure from the off, and after just three minutes, Fans’ Player of the Year Marco Grüll had the first big chance. Only four more minutes went by before the supporters were celebrating! Kohya Kitagawa set up Christoph Knasmüllner, who curled the ball nicely into the net for an early lead. 1-0 (7’). The tempo remained high, and Auer played a deep pass in towards Grüll, whose shot at the near post was only just kept out. Aiwu’s header from the resulting corner kick also missed by just inches (15’).

Ten minutes later though, the guests were level out of the blue. Aiwu struggled to control a back pass, and the East Styrian side took full advantage, forcing the ball in for 1-1 (24’). Another blow came along when Maxi Hofmann had to leave the field with a knock to his calf (38’). Just before the break, a VAR check was needed as Hartberg claimed a penalty. It wasn’t given, but the drama hadn’t subsided; deep into first-half stoppage-time, the visitors hit the front, to go in at the break with a 2-1 advantage (48’).

The second half began once again with a lot of pressure from Rapid. Kitagawa lifted the first scoring chance over the top (49’), before Druijf and Demir came on in a double change from Coach Feldhofer a few minutes later (55’). Headed efforts from Velimirovic (64’) and Kitagawa (66’) went so close to levelling things up for Rapid, and a Grüll free kick was on target, requiring a solid stop from the Hartberg keeper to hold the scores at 2-1 (75’).

Our task would get harder as Velimirovic picked up a second yellow card a few minutes later (78’), Schick and Arase came on to freshen things up in the final phase (85’). Petrovic placed a header nicely, but it wouldn’t go in (91’), and Demir was involved as the ball somehow was cleared off the line right at the death (93’), but seconds later our cup exit was confirmed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the start we wanted to competitive action in 2022, but now we have time to analyse things and gather strength for the important Bundesliga games ahead. Keep your heads up, Rapid fans!

Fotos: GEPA

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SK Rapid vs. TSV Hartberg

UNIQA ÖFB Cup Viertelfinale, Allianz Stadion

Tore: Knasmüllner (7.); Heil (23.), Sturm (48.) 

Rapid-11: Gartler; Auer, Moormann, Hofmann (38. Velimirovic/78. Gelb/Rot), Stojkovic (86. Schick); Grüll, Petrovic, Aiwu, Knasmüllner (55. Demir); Kitagawa (86. Arase), Strunz (55. Druijf)

Ersatz: Hedl, Demir, Schick, Oswald, Arase, Druijf, Velimirovic