The Right Reaction, the Right Result

A Lightning start in Lustenau

A long trip to Vorarlberg awaited us on matchday 10 of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga season, as we faced SC Austria Lustenau. After a deflating end to the Vienna Derby last week, everyone connected to SK Rapid was rooting for a big reaction in terms of both the performance and the result. Roman Kerschbaum came into the starting XI, and apart from Guido Burgstaller and Nenad Cvetković who were still absent, head coach Zoran Barišić could count on a full-strength squad for Saturday’s game.

The game started on our part with a lot of pressure in the forward areas, and after just seven minutes, some tricky work from Matthias Seidl drew a foul in the penalty area. After a long VAR check, there was a rightful penalty awarded to Rapid, which Marco Grüll hammered coolly into the lower left corner for his first league goal of the season, 1-0 (10’)! We followed it up too, only a few minutes later Grüll finished again from the edge of the penalty area after a quick turnover and flicked the ball into the bottom right corner for his first brace in a Rapid jersey, 2-0 (13’). We continued with a nice combination between Leo Querfeld and Nana Kasanwirjo, but Fally Mayulu's final effort missed the target (25’). Only two minutes later though, the ball was back in the net once more! After a pass from Nic Kühn our number 17 was on the spot at the right moment and he pushed the ball calmly past the goalkeeper for 3-0 (27’)!

The man who set up goal number three also fired a shot towards the Lustenau net a few moments later, but missed the target by centimeters (29’). The hosts then tried the same on their first offensive advance, but Niki Hedl, however, skillfully parried it away (37’). Grüll then tried to net himself a hat-trick, but first curled the ball a little too gently towards the corner (39’), before a direct free-kick from our number 27 was stopped by the Lustenau keeper (43’). With three goals scored and numerous chances created, we went into the dressing room with a well-deserved lead for the boys in their Blue & Red away jerseys. 

After the restart, things continued at the same pace; Leo Querfeld sent a corner kick delivery onto the woodwork (47’), Fally Mayulu then also showed his skills, first having a go with his heel (56’) and then just a few seconds later hitting the side-netting (58’). In the 60th minute we made our first change; Oliver Strunz and Lukas Grgić came in for Fally Mayulu and Roman Kerschbaum, and soon afterwards, we had the next goal to celebrate! Following another pass from Nic Kühn, Matthias Seidl was able to finish off his third Bundesliga goal and make it 4-0 (62’)! With the fourth goal came the next substitutions, Thierry Gale and Moritz Oswald replaced Nic Kühn and Matthias Seidl (66’), but even at that point, our team hadn’t had quite enough, because after a really well-worked attack, Lukas Grgić also got himself on the score board with a top finish and his first goal in a Rapid jersey, 5-0 (81’)! Thorsten Schick got a late run-out in place of two-goal hero Grüll, but with the game very much in our hands, we saw it off to the end to complete the 5-0 rout after 95 minutes.

We’re delighted to take a much-needed three points back with us to Hütteldorf, and after a strong performance, this time the flood of goals came our way, which is hopefully a good sign for the coming challenges! An away win made for a good weekend, let’s keep it going like this, Rapid!

Fotos: GEPA