ÖFB Cup Quarter Final: Dances With Wolves

A home game in the UNIQA ÖFB Cup Quarter-Finals will be the kick-off for Green & White competitive action in 2024! The battle for a place in the ÖFB Cup Semis sees SK Rapid take on “the wolves”; second-division side SKN St. Pölten in Hütteldorf.

●       Kick-Off: 18:10pm

●       Watch on live TV: ORF 1

●       Live-ticker: Rapid-App

●       Stay up-to-date: via Rapid’s Social-Media channels

TICKETS SICHERN

A Fresh Start for Rapid & Robert Klauß in 2024

Guido Burgstaller & the team have spent four weeks preparing for the spring season and the tasks that await under the guidance of head coach Robert Klauß and his coaching team. The preparation also included four friendly matches and an eleven-day training camp in Belek. In terms of personnel, there have been some changes to the Green & White squad over the winter. Nicolas Kühn made the leap to Celtic, Patrick Greil moved to SV Sandhausen in the German third division and Ante Bajic returned to his former club, SV Ried, however, we brought in Austria U-21 international Christoph Lang. The versatile attacking player was loaned to TSV Hartberg by his home club SK Sturm in the fall, and Rapid secured his services during the break.

Two years ago, the new footballing year for the Green & Whites also started with a quarter-final match in the UNIQA ÖFB Cup. Back then, the team suffered a bitter 2-1 home defeat against TSV Hartberg. This time, we will do everything possible to avoid a repeat of the scenario: it's about taking the next step towards another ÖFB Cup Final in Klagenfurt!

Wolves Make for Difficult Visitors

The Green & Whites have won ten of their 15 competitive matches against the Lower Austrians to date, including the only cup meeting in April 2017, which ended in a 3-1 away win. However, the two defeats which Rapid suffered both came at home. On September 29th, 2018, Goran Djuricin’s Rapid lost 2-0 to St. Pölten, who were coached by Didi Kühbauer at the time. A short time later, Kühbauer became Rapid coach, and he too lost a home match against SKN; 1-0 on November 2nd, 2019.

Although the Hütteldorfers have won their other five home matches against the Wolves, they only ever prevailed by a single goal, so we can expect a close encounter! The last meeting to date was in January 2021, and it resulted in a narrow 2-1 win having trailed 1-0 in front of empty stands due to the coronavirus pandemic. These results show that Robert Klauß' team will not have an easy game on their hands this time around, even though the Lower Austrians are currently outside of the Bundesliga.

Fotos: Red Ring Shots