Beljo Penalty Secures 10-Man Rapid a Point against Sturm

After a bitter midweek defeat in the UNIQA ÖFB Cup, we had to quickly refocus for a huge Bundesliga clash in Liebenau on Saturday. The Green & Whites travelled to Graz to face SK Sturm, the defending champions and current league leaders. Despite the challenging task ahead, the aim was to take the points back to Vienna and keep things close at the top of the table.

To achieve the goal, head coach Robert Klauß relied on a familiar starting line-up and from the very first minute, both teams threw themselves into an intense match characterised by tough challenges, but there were to be no major scoring chances in the early stages. We repeatedly found a way to evade the Styrians' pressing, but the final passes couldn't quite open up spaces when we got forward. Our high-pressing play in attack rewarded us with the first big chance: after Jonas Auer had won the ball well and played it into the box dangerously, Guido Burgstaller was just a toe’s-length away from nudging the ball over the line (26'). Sturm, on the other hand, were largely unremarkable in attack early on. The next big moment of the match was not a goal, but an unfortunate foul: After Mamadou Sangaré's unintentionally rough tackle, our number 17 was given his immediate marching orders with a straight-red card (39’). Outnumbered, the Rapid players continued to fight for every centimetre, and rightfully headed into the changing rooms level at the break.

Given that the Green & Whites would be a man short for the second half, the hosts increased their attacking pressure in the opening minutes and Niki Hedl had to intervene for the first time after a shot towards his near post (54'). Our coaching team reacted by bringing on Noah Bischof and Dennis Kaygin for Guido Burgstaller and Louis Schaub (62'). Numerous fouls and stoppages meant that there was no real flow to the game from either side, but we were holding up well. However, Sturm Graz then took full advantage of their superior numbers, showing efficiency and thwarting our defence with a well-played move to make it 1-0 late in the contest (82'). In the final phase, Jakob Schöller, who was celebrating his Bundesliga debut, and Nikolaus Wurmbrand came onto the pitch in place of Lukas Grgić and captain Matthias Seidl (87'). The duel then became even more heated when a penalty was correctly awarded in our favour after a handball by former Rapid defender Emanuel Aiwu: Dion Beljo stepped up to place the ball on the spot, and calmly delivered us an equaliser in stoppage time, 1-1 (91’)! As if that wasn't enough, substitute Nikolaus Wurmbrand almost scored an incredible winning goal, but was denied by the woodwork in the 95th minute - so the reward for our efforts with ten men remained a hard-fought draw.

After a spirited team performance, Rapid managed to secure a well-deserved point despite being outnumbered. An important result for morale, and a result which almost felt like a victory. Well done, Rapid!

Fotos: GEPA