Only One Point to Bring Back From Klagenfurt

Between our UEL qualifiers against Trabzonspor, another important task awaited the Green & Whites on Sunday afternoon. In Rapid’s first away match of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, Robert Klauß’s XI eleven visited the Wörthersee Stadium to play Austria Klagenfurt. There were a few changes to the starting line-up in comparison to Thursday's match in Türkiye. Pauli Gartler started in goal for the first time since May 2023, as regular goalkeeper Niki Hedl had to sit out with a slight injury - more out of caution than concern. The four-man defence was formed by Bundesliga debutant Benjamin Böckle, Serge-Philippe Raux Yao, Maxi Hofmann and Bendegúz Bolla. Thursday's golden goalscorer Lukas Grgic played as usual in his central role, this time together with all-rounder Moritz Oswald. Captain Matti Seidl and Louis Schaub played between the lines in attack and on the wings respectively, while Dion Beljo played up front together with Furkan Dursun. After five competitive wins in succession, hopes were high that we would kick on in Klagenfurt, although those would suffer a setback early on…

…as the hosts from Carinthia made a lightning start to the contest. Ben Bobzien got free in front of goal with the first chance of the game, and he took it to score the early goal and put us behind 1-0 (4’). It soon became clear that the rest of the game would be anything but a walk in the park, as the Carinthians were pushing hard for every inch of the turf against our team. Benny Böckle’s high ball into the box gave us our first sign of life on the offense (7’) but Dursun’s header wasn’t good enough for a goal. A few minutes later, Louis Schaub played a crisp pass in from the right, and Dion Beljo only missed out on his second goal of the season by mere centimetres (12’).

Klagenfurt led and were happy to counter-attack, as Rapid dominated and pressed for the equaliser. The pressure increased minute by minute before Moritz Oswald, tightly marked and surrounded by a number of Carinthians, found the space he needed to squeeze the ball in at the near post with great vision (18'). In his 50th Bundesliga match, our number 28 scored his first competitive goal in Green & White! In the sweltering heat, Rapid remained on top in the game, and only the inside of the post prevented Dion Beljo from giving us the lead with the best chance later in the first half (35’), but as it was, the scores remained 1-1 at the interval. 

The second half began with a switch of personnel for Rapid, as Mama Sangaré replaced goalscorer Moritz Oswald before an extremely harsh VAR decision ruled in our favour, and shaped the second 45 minutes. Furkan Dursun stormed towards the Klagenfurt defence on a counter-attack, tried to run past his opponent and was brought down. The foul was rightfully called, but the resulting red card for defender Mahrer was a harsh decision. Rapid were therefore outnumbering their hosts from the 51st minute on. The course of the game from the first half continued in the second. The spaces were opening up due to the sending off, and Rapid wanted to make the most of it. Unfortunately, however, they were unsuccessful. Dion Beljo failed to score with either head or foot against the home keeper, and captain Matti Seidl missed the target when a half-chance came his way. There were opportunities coming up frequently, and a Rapid lead would have been highly deserved by now, but it wasn’t forthcoming against a stubborn 10-man defence.

After just under an hour, Lukas Grgic and Furkan Dursun went off, as Guido Burgstaller and Isak Jansson were brought on to increase the offensive workload even further. With the in-game coaching and the change to bring on an attacking player for a defensive midfielder, head coach Robert Klauß set the tone for the final phase from the touchline. Our coach almost proved to have a golden touch; Guido Burgstaller's header should have ended up in the top corner and not next to it. Spurred on by the vocal support at the Rapid quarter-hour and the ensuing fan chants that were getting behind the boys from Hütteldorf, Matti Seidl & Co. threw everything forward once more. Time was ticking against us, and for Klagenfurt in this case, but the ball wouldn't find its way past the Klagenfurt goalkeeper a second time that afternoon. A Sangaré shot from distance only just grazed the top of the crossbar, and even the seven minutes of stoppage time did not bring the winning goal that we wanted, so in the end it remained a 1-1 draw away at Austria Klagenfurt.

Fotos: GEPA