Disappointing Defeat after another Red Card

Rapid’s European campaign may have come to an end for this season on Thursday, but the pain of the defeat was outweighed by the pride from the incredible journey. With 120 minutes in their legs our team made the trip to the Lavanttal on Sunday for a meeting with in-form Wolfsberger AC, hoping to secure three points on Easter Sunday.

Head coach Robert Klauß fielded a young starting XI for the clash, with an average age of 23.6 years: Benjamin Böckle, Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao, Ange Ahoussou and Bendi Bolla made up the back four in front of keeper Niki Hedl, Captain Matthias Seidl and Mama Sangaré started in the centre, with Isak Jansson and Andrija Radulović deployed on the wings. Dion Beljo and Ercan Kara once again featured as strike-partners. Nenad Cvetković was missing due to injury, while Lukas Grgić and Jonas Auer were rested.

In a reunion with former Rapid player & coach Didi Kühbauer, it was WAC who first fired towards goal. Inside the first minute the hosts hit a good shot towards the corner, but Niki Hedl showed strong reflexes to get over and make the save (1’). Our team didn't get into the game that well, but the hosts were always dangerous as they neared our penalty area, and that was shown not long into the game, when WAC got in from the right and a cross was poked in for 1-0 (10’). Dion Beljo’s nice turn and shot just missed the far corner as Rapid went for the equaliser (15’), and as we steadily grew into the game a ball into the box ended up being handled. A VAR check followed, and from the resulting penalty, Beljo converted to bring us level at 1-1 (24’)!

The positive momentum from the goal was gone just minutes later, when Niki Hedl rushed out of his area to battle for the ball. Our keeper got there just before the striker 35 yards from goal, and as the two players collided out on the flank, the referee decided that the incident was not only worthy of a WAC free-kick, but also a red card for Hedl; a decision that got harder to understand the more the challenge was viewed (27’)! We’d have to play for a long stretch with 10-men once more, and Paul Gartler came on with the gloves, as Radulović had to be switched out. Before the interval, we fought for every ball and kept things tight, but there were to be no more major chances.

We started the second half with two new faces, Guido Burgstaller and Romeo Amane replacing Dion Beljo and Mama Sangaré (46'). As far as our keeper was concerned, there was a repeat of the first minute of the game, when a few seconds after the restart, Paul Gartler this time was the one who had to make a strong save to keep the hosts at bay (46'). We struggled to get out of our own half with ten-men against a confident eleven. Ercan Kara had a rare chance after the hour-mark but failed to hit the target (62'). Only a moment later, unfortunately, everything fell into place for the hosts, and an unstoppable long-range shot from Dejan Zukic dipped into the bottom corner and gave WAC the lead once again; 2-1 (63'). Louis Schaub and Noah Bischof then came on for the final phase in place of Isak Jansson and Ercan Kara (71'). However, the next setback came just moments after the substitutions: After losing the ball in our own ranks, the Lavanttal team capitalised on their superior numbers and scored to make it 3-1 (73'). Shortly before the final whistle, the hosts made the most of our tired defences, and increased the score to 4-1 (89'), before passing across the area and slotting in a fifth goal in stoppage time; 5-1 (90’+3).

In the end, we had to accept a clear margin of defeat after playing a second-successive game whilst being a man down for a long time. The red card was tough to take, but we’ll have to stick together as one, and pick ourselves up again quickly.

Fotos: GEPA