UECL QF: Emotional Away Win in Sweden

On Thursday night the stage was set for an historic European Quarter-Final First Leg at a packed Stockholm Arena, as Rapid prepared to face Djurgardens IF in the UEFA Conference League. 1,700 Rapid fans made the journey, supporting the team from behind the goal on an emotional evening which marked the return of Guido Burgstaller to the matchday squad, following his head injury late last year. Mama Sangaré missed out with a suspension for accumulated yellow cards, and so Romeo Amane made his starting debut, with our very own Swede Isak Jansson deployed again on the wing, as Louis Schaub wore the captain’s armband.

Despite the icy temperature, the match heated up quickly on the Swedish astroturf, as the ball zipped around at the expected high-tempo. Jansson showed a flash of his trademark speed as early as the fourth minute, but when he got down the left his shot was blocked. Niki Hedl was soon called into action to get behind a header (6’), before Romeo Amane showed his qualities by winning the ball high up-field and getting into the box, but the home keeper also displayed sharp reflexes to turn his low shot away from a dangerous position (14’). The resulting corner caused chaos for the hosts, but a glancing header was cleared off the line before a few follow-up shots were also blocked, but we couldn’t get the ball over the line! Not long later Schaub and Jansson combined well, but again we were close without taking the lead (19’). The rest of the first half was an end-to-end battle, with some big moments for both teams and a bit of fortune going in either direction. The closest anyone came to a goal before the break was when Bendi Bolla’s free kick from 25-yards-out whizzed just past the outside of the net (42’), but with that going wide, a tense game was goalless at the interval.

The second half offered a very similar picture, with both teams really going for it at a high tempo. Niki Hedl reacted superbly to step forward and block when the guests dinked a dangerous ball into the box from the left-hand-side (51’) before Robert Klauß made some changes, and on came Matthias Seidl and Noah Bischof in place of Dion Beljo and Romeo Amane (62’). Shortly afterwards luck was on our side, and when Louis Schaub won the ball back and got down to the byline on the right, his low square-ball was driven across the box and touched in past his own keeper from the near post by defender Hampus Finndell. 1-0 to Rapid (63’)! A second goal nearly arrived just after, but Ercan Kara could only redirect a ricochet over the bar from inside the box (64’). Tobias Børkeeiet came on in place of Lukas Grgić for the closing stages, and later on we got a demonstration of just how emotional football can be, as Guido Burgstaller came on to make his long-awaited comeback (85’)! Andrija Radulović also came on, and the team were still fighting for every ball in a desperate attempt to bring this narrow lead to the end of the game. There were some nervous moments along the way, including a late, late VAR penalty check, but we got it over the line, and held on to win!

After a very tight game, we finished with our noses in front, and secured a precious 1-0 lead ahead of next week’s second leg. See you all next week in Hütteldorf!

Fotos: GEPA