UEL P-O: 10-Man Rapid Stay Alive for Second Leg vs Braga

Having beaten Trabzonspor home and away and guaranteed at least a place in the UEFA Conference League, SK Rapid traveled to Portugal to take on SC Braga for a spot in the UEFA Europa League.

The match at Braga’s “quarry” stadium - which cuts into a scenic open rock face - began in eventful fashion. Dion Beljo nipped in to take advantage of a dreadful misplaced pass from the home team right from the kick off, but once he took the ball around the keeper, he was agonisingly unable to slot the ball into the empty net (1’). On Braga’s first counter response, Lukas Grgić committed a foul (2’) which would eventually be upgraded to a red card after a VAR check (4’), and the game had hardly begun. With a very difficult task now looking extremely challenging, Head Coach Robert Klauß reacted swiftly to switch Beljo for Moritz Oswald (8’).

Rapid then put up a strong fight, despite the numerical disadvantage, before the hosts' first good chance came after just over a quarter of an hour, when Zalazar's shot from an acute angle went just wide of Hedl's goal (17'). Ten minutes later, only the 300 Rapid fans at the foot of the rock face could be heard! After some fantastic link-up play via Oswald, Cvetković and Bolla, captain Seidl teed up Guido Burgstaller with a strong pass. Our number 9 struck the ball perfectly and gave us an unlikely lead; 1-0 to Rapid (27')! Unfortunately, the joy of taking the lead didn't last long, as Carvalho headed home from a corner (32'), giving Hedl no chance. Braga then took control of the match, but our team defended with all their might and the scores were still level going in at half time.

After a brief feeling-out period, Braga had the first big chance of the second half, Fernandes with a strong effort from near the edge of the box (54'), but Niki Hedl rose to the challenge with an even stronger save. Five minutes later, the Green & Whites were celebrating (59'), but unfortunately only briefly, as Burgstaller was offside when he thought that he’d scored his second. Braga then came back into the game better and had numerous shots on goal, with Niklas Hedl saving from Fernandes among others (67'). However, our keeper finally had no chance with Zalazar's shot (71') making it 2-1 to the hosts.

As a result, 15,868 spectators watched a heated final phase, but the closing stages passed without compelling scoring chances for either side. Unfortunately, this was Rapid’s first competitive defeat of the season, but a battling 2-1 result means that the tie is still very much alive going into next week’s second leg! Together with the support of the fans in Hütteldorf, a place in the group league phase of the UEFA Europa League is still up for grabs!

Tickets are already available online at rapidshop.at - LET’S ALL HEAD TO HÜTTELDORF!

Fotos: GEPA