ADMIRAL Bundesliga Matchday 3 Reviews

SK Austria Klagenfurt 4-3 TSV Egger Glas Hartberg

A thrilling encounter in Klagenfurt provided pure drama right to the death, and after 147 league appearances, Markus Pink’s first ever Bundesliga brace gave the home team a hotly-contested first win of the season. That’s three goals in three games now for Pink, and his efforts were aided by young Swedish teammate Alex Timossi Andersson, who grabbed his first goal of the new campaign, as well as Florian Rieder who scored on his home debut, in a match which saw the Carinthians constantly pulling in front with counter attacks, only to see Hartberg clawing their way back into the tie.

An industrious Jürgen Heil had levelled the scores at 1-1 with his first Bundesliga goal in 60 games, but Hartberg teammate Sascha Horvath scored the pick of the goals with two long range strikes in the second half ensuring a nervous finale at 4-3. The East Styrians were awarded a late penalty too, but the usually reliable Dario Tadic had his final effort saved by Klagenfurt keeper Phillip Menzel to complete a memorable afternoon for all involved.

SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz 3-1 CASHPOINT SCR Altach

SK Sturm continued their solid start to the season by securing a deserved home win against Altach. Jon-Gorenc Stankovic headed in the opener from Jakob Jantscher’s corner after 17 minutes, making him something of a home specialist as all four of his Bundesliga goals have come in Graz. After being under the cosh for much of the first half, Damir Canadi’s Altach responded with an equaliser four minutes after the break. Stefan Haudum converted a deep corner kick to register his fourth career Bundesliga goal, and his first for an away team. It was the hosts who came back stronger though, and a brace from Kelvin Yeboah ultimately decided the game for Sturm Graz, continuing an unbeaten run of five wins and one draw in games in which Yeboah has scored. Impressively, Jakob Jantscher’s accurate deliveries meant that he was directly involved in five of Sturm’s first six goals of the season, and after three games he already has a goal and four assists to his name.

SV Guntamatic Ried 2-1 FC Flyeralarm Admira

Former national team colleagues Andreas Heraf and Andreas Herzog went head to head from the dugouts on match day three of the Bundesliga season, and it was Heraf who came away with the three points. After suffering a 7-1 drubbing last week, Ried reacted in the perfect fashion as Ante Bajic fired in after 15 minutes. It was Bajic’s seventh career Bundesliga goal, and the fifth of those to be assisted by his trusty teammate Stefan Nutz. Seifedin Chabbi picked out the top corner on 26 minutes to double the lead, his third career goal against Admira, and Nutz was again the one to get the assist. Admira aimed for the comeback, and they got themselves on the board with 18 minutes remaining after loanee Marlon Mustapha’s ninth shot of the season was rewarded with his first goal, but alas there was to be no leveller, meaning that Ried have won both of their opening two home games in this campaign.

SK Rapid Wien 3-0 RZ Pellets WAC

Taxiarchis Fountas fired Rapid to their first league win of the season as they defeated WAC in the west of the capital. VAR ruled out Kelvin Arase’s early strike for the hosts, before the Greek forward bagged his second Bundesliga hat-trick, both of which have come against WAC, to secure three points. It’s taken Fountas 54 games to register 32 goals for Rapid, a figure only bettered by Zlatko Krancjar (36) at the club. Eight of Fountas’ goals have now come against Wolfsberg, making them his favourite opponents. Summer signing Marco Grüll chipped in with a third career Bundesliga assist, and his first for SK Rapid, as they made it a day to forget for WAC.

WSG Tirol 1-1 LASK

It ended all square at the Tivoli Stadium as hosts WSG kept up a run that saw them unbeaten in all four games against LASK last season (won two, drawn two). Giacomo Vrioni tapped in after a run down the left from Tobias Anselm (who’s on loan at WSG from LASK), making the Albanian forward the first WSG player to score in both of his first two Bundesliga appearances for the club. Anselm himself claimed that as his third league assist in total, and his first as a starter. LASK fought their way back into the game though, levelling up when Peter Michorl’s header was turned in by Mamoudou Karamoko from close range on the hour mark. After almost a whole season out with injury last year, it was only his fifth Bundesliga game, and a second Bundesliga goal for the Frenchman. LASK could have won it when Karamoko had space to shoot in the box with less than five minutes to play, but it was off target, and the sides ultimately had to settle for a point apiece.

FC Red Bull Salzburg 1-0 FK Austria Wien

Salzburg were made to work hard for their third straight win of the season, but they came through in the end against a spirited Austria side. Rasmus Kristensen was heavily involved with several key tackles and 123 touches, a league high figure for any player this season. One of those touches was the all-important assist for Karim Adeyemi to sweep in the game’s only goal after 72 minutes. Adeyemi has already scored five times now in this young season, and achieving that in just three games ties him up with Salzburg’s club record return. For Kristensen, the assist meant that he’s been directly involved in a goal in each of his three Bundesliga games so far in the campaign, after scoring in his last two matches. Austria may have had just 28% of the possession, but they were not far away from grabbing a point after a run from Noah Ohio saw him round the keeper, but fail to convert.