Rapid Cruise into Cup Round 2

In beautiful summer temperatures, the time for competitive football was upon us again! After four weeks of preparation, the first round of the UNIQA ÖFB Cup kicked off for the Green & Whites on Sunday. Head Coach Zoran Barišić and his team faced SR Donaufeld at Wiener Sport-Club Platz. Aleksa Pejić, Nenad Cvetković (both still injured), Moritz Oswald (also slightly injured) and Max Hofmann (who needs a longer recovery period after his surgery) did not feature. For the Rapid players who were chosen, however, the target was expressly clear!

In the early stages, Donaufeld held up well, and they even had the first shot on goal, but it was a harmless attempt. With our first chance though, we took an early lead: Nic Kühn held the ball on the edge of the penalty area, passed it to Guido Burgstaller and our captain calmly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper, 1-0 (6'). After going ahead, we wanted to add to the score, but the hosts closed down the spaces well. After about twenty minutes, it was Kühn again who moved into the centre nicely, but took a little too long to finish (22'). Kühn again got the ball into the box moments later, but in the end Marco Grüll couldn't turn the chance goalwards (25'). Our team dominated possession, but could not convert that superiority into many more dangerous chances. A second goal could have been scored by our number 10 again, but the woodwork just prevented it (37'). Shortly before the break, Guido Burgstaller put a header into the hands of the keeper (39'), but just seconds later, our Green & Whites did score a second: Leo Querfeld didn't let the opponent distract him, and coolly played the ball into the middle where Marco Grüll fired in with a powerful shot for 2-0 just as the interval came around (45'+1)!

The second half began with no changes from the Rapid dugout, and a third goal should have been scored in the 52nd minute, but a Donaufeld player was just able to rescue the ball on the line. Only a few moments later two massive chances followed, which Burgstaller and Kerschbaum both unfortunately missed (55'). On the counterattack, we almost scored the next goal, but luck wasn't on our side (63'). Our captain was also unlucky when he placed a beautiful header too centrally on goal (69') and Matthias Seidl too, whose hard shot bounced off the crossbar and onto the line, but did not count as a goal (69'). The contest was decided shortly before the Rapid quarter-hour though: Marco Grüll scored the third in style with a delicate lob (73')! Fresh players came on, Patrick Greil and Ante Bajić replaced Nikolas Sattlberger and our double goal scorer Marco Grüll (75'). Fally Mayulu and Oliver Strunz also came on for Guido Burgstaller and Nic Kühn (79').

The changes bore fruit and the debuts could not have been better: Matthias Seidl laid the ball off well to his former teammate and with his first contact with the ball Fally Mayulu hammered the ball into the net for 4-0 (80')! Unfortunately, Ante Bajić had to leave the field due to an injury and was replaced by Martin Koscelník (85'). Oliver Strunz immediately scored the next goal, after a trademark square ball from Thorsten Schick, from which he tapped the ball into the net, 5-0 (86'). With Donaufeld now tiring, Roman Kerschbaum also scored with a header from Thorsten Schick's set-up, 6-0 (88'). Right on the final whistle, Matthias Seidl scored his first goal for the Green & Whites, again as a beneficiary of Schick's perfect crossing; 7-0 (90').

With that, the job was very much done: After a top performance in the second half and a successful start to the competition, we move into the second round of the UNIQA ÖFB Cup. The ADMIRAL Bundesliga also gets going on Friday against LASK!

Fotos: Red Ring Shots