UEL PO: Conference League Awaits After Braga Battle Back

A balmy summer evening, floodlights on, and a packed Weststadion: everything was in place for a magical European Cup evening in Vienna on Thursday evening. In the second leg against SC Braga, Robert Klauß’s team aimed to secure their spot in the league phase of the UEFA Europa League. Lukas Grgić had to take a seat in the stands as he was suspended due to his red card in Portugal. Instead, youngsters Nikolaus Wurmbrand and Tobias Hedl were able to enjoy a place in a European matchday squad for the first time! Even though the first leg ended in a narrow 2-1 defeat, we remained well in with a chance of winning the tie on home turf.

The evening could not have gotten off to a better start, as the volume in the stands rose sharply as early as the seventh minute: After a corner kick, our opponents put the ball into their own net to give Rapid the lead, 1-0 (7’)! Our team was well in the game right from the start, especially after taking the lead, and Guido Burgstaller almost scored the second goal with an acrobatic overhead kick after a beautiful bit of combination play (19’). The Portuguese team also slowly began to make inroads in attack, but Niki Hedl showed strong reflexes to save from a header (22'). The game slowly settled down between the two penalty areas and our team were unable to get a decisive shot on goal until the break. It was a hard day's work for our defenders, but we were able to repel every attempted attack with our precision and organisation. We therefore went into the break with a deserved lead, and the tie level at 2-2 on aggregate.

The team returned to the pitch unchanged, but the score was about to change: With a strong solo move, Isak Jansson went through on goal coolly, and scored the second goal of the evening, taking the atmosphere in the stadium up a notch, 2-0 (47.)! At this point, the aggregate score was 3-2 to SK Rapid. The tension that followed was that of a proper European night: The Portuguese side were determined to score and threw everything forward, while our defence had its work cut out. But it would all come down to a bitter end: after an alleged foul by our goalscorer Jansson, Braga were awarded a penalty, which they converted to make it 2-1 (66'). As if that wasn't enough, from nowhere the Portuguese side equalised on the night just two minutes later to make it 2-2 and put them ahead 4-3 on aggregate (70'). Head coach Robert Klauß reacted and brought on fresh faces with Louis Schaub coming on for Moritz Oswald (76'). The Rapid players fought for every inch of turf, Guido Burgstaller soon had two good chances (79') and the ball even hit the back of the net, but unfortunately the goal was disallowed for offside (81'). For the final phase, Christoph Lang and Nikolaus Wurmbrand, who was celebrating his professional debut, came on in place of Isak Jansson and Mamadou Sangaré (89), however, unfortunately nothing was to change on the score board.

A rollercoaster of emotions came to an end - and even though the draw was not enough to advance to the UEFA Europa League, we can be proud of yet another spirited team performance, and at least our hard work in the qualifiers has taken us into the UEFA Conference League this season.

Fotos: GEPA