Points Shared in a Dramatic Vienna Derby
The 339th Vienna Derby turned out to be one of the most memorable in many years, as both teams battled hard to share six goals between them. VAR calls, red cards and some stunning goals left fans with plenty to discuss after a game which saw both teams leading at times, before ending 3-3.
In Sunday evening’s big ADMIRAL Bundesliga clash, SK Rapid welcomed rivals Austria Vienna to the Allianz Stadion for the third capital city clash of the season. Having come off on the wrong side of the previous two encounters, Zoki Barisic was looking for his team to claim a first derby win at the club’s home ground, in front of a sold out crowd. The Green & White line-up featured two new faces from the win against Klagenfurt last time out as Michael Sollbauer and Aleksa Pejic started; the guests, who began the day one point behind Rapid, were coming in off the back of an action packed 3-3 draw against Salzburg.
The visitors were well prepared from the outset, and tested our young goalkeeper Niki Hedl with high and low crosses (5’) before their in-form forward Haris Tabakovic had his first go at goal by shooting for the far corner (7’), that was also blocked by Hedl, as was Lukas Mühl’s header moments later (10’), with Austria maintaining good rhythm on the counter attack early on. Nevertheless, the Green & Whites pushed on undeterred and the reward came after a quarter of an hour, as Rapid’s super striker Guido Burgstaller climbed up high to get onto the end of a wonderful floated cross from Jonas Auer on the left. He buried the header into the back of the net to give the home side the lead; 1-0 (15’)!
In terms of the action, it was only just getting started for the day. Rapid began to look much more comfortable with Austria’s attacks, so it was against the run of play when Dominik Fitz played in Andreas Gruber who slotted the ball through the legs of Hedl and into Rapid’s net; 1-1 (28’). Three minutes later, Gruber turned assist-provider, laying a ball in the box into the path of Tabakovic who found the bottom corner for 2-1 to Austria (31’). Despite the huge setback, Rapid remained focused, and before the break Roman Kerschbaum was able to curl in a beautiful strike from the outside of the box, it rippled the back of the net for 2-2 (43’) but there was still more drama to come before the break. Sollbauer clipped an Austria forward, and a penalty was immediately awarded to the visitors, before VAR intervened to downgrade the punishment to a free kick (45’+2). Nothing came of the chance, so 2-2 was the half time scoreline, and the full house had 15 minutes to breathe and relax before the second period.
Just seconds after the restart, the derby drama ratcheted up a notch. A slide tackle from Denso Kasius was instantly greeted with a straight red card (47’). It looked to be a very harsh call on a foul which would draw a yellow card 99 times in 100, yet after a VAR review the officials would uphold the call and suggest that there was no reason to overturn the decision. Austria now had the upper hand, and Tabakovic was sensationally denied by Hedl from 6 yards out (53’) as the keeper turned a powerful shot over, although the hosts may perhaps have been spared by the offside flag anyway. Even with 10 men, Rapid went for the win; Moritz Oswald blasted a rare chance over from an angle on the right (63’) before Marco Grüll tried to lob the ball over an on-rushing keeper (68’) starting off a scramble which ultimately ended in nothing.
Shortly after the start of the Rapid quarter hour, Tabakovic came away with the ball on the right, and with the defence out of position, he ran through and tucked away another goal, putting Austria back in front to dampen the spirits of the home fans (78’). The crowd rallied behind the team once again though, and literally seconds after the restart, Rapid had a penalty! This one would also be downgraded via VAR to a free kick from the edge of the box, and although nothing came from that attempt (79’), a virtually identical situation four minutes later saw Grüll step up and smash the dead ball in off the bottom of the crossbar to level up at 3-3 in stunning style (83’)!
The closing stages turned into a messy contest, with foul after foul and card after card being shown. Away goal-scorer Tabakovic received a second yellow for a high foot on Leo Querfeld, Nikola Dovedan could have seen red for pushing and shoving, but in the end, after 96 breathless minutes, the two teams finished with ten men each, three goals each, and ultimately just one point each. Probably a fair result from a frantic Vienna Derby.
ADMIRAL Bundesliga | 25. Runde | Allianz Stadion
Tore: Burgstaller (15.), Kerschbaum (43.), Grüll (83.); Gruber (28.), Tabakovic (31., 78.)
Sonstiges: Kasius (47./Rot); Tabakovic (86./Gelb-Rot)
Rapid-11: Hedl; Auer, Sollbauer, Querfeld (90.+1 Moormann), Kasius (47./Rot); Pejić, Kerschbaum (83. Druijf); Grüll, Oswald (63. Schick), Strunz (63. Greil); Burgstaller ©
Ersatz: Unger, Kühn, Schick, Greil, Moormann, Druijf, Zimmermann