RZ Pellets WAC 0-3 TSV Egger Glas Hartberg
Wolfsberg’s winless run extended to five Bundesliga games as they were soundly beaten by an efficient Hartberg side at a sunny Lavanttal Arena. Joint-top Bundesliga scorer Maximilian Entrup opened the scoring when he latched onto a lovely low ball down the left flank from Manuel Pfeifer and chipped the ball in off the post. The goal was immediately flagged offside by the linesman but then awarded following a VAR review. Wolfsberg had chances to level up through Thomas Sabitzer and Thierno Ballo but it was the orange-clad visitors who scored the next goal when WAC shot-stopper Hendrik Bonmann let a routine low cross slip through his fingers and Donis Avdijaj, who had only come off the bench five minutes earlier, slotted into an empty net. The victory was then rounded off by the excellent Entrup, who latched onto a defence-splitting pass and slotted home confidently to give Hartberg their biggest away victory in almost a year. Markus Schopp’s side are now up to fifth place on eight points, with Manfred Schmid’s men two points behind in eighth.
WSG Tirol 2-4 FC Blau Weiß Linz
Promoted Blau Weiß Linz finally ended their winless start to the season away to WSG Tirol and picked up the first Bundesliga victory in their club history in the process. The visitors got off to the perfect start too, with Ronivaldo slotting home a cross into the danger zone by Simon Pirkl after only 88 seconds. Paul Mensah had doubled that lead with a thundering strike into the roof of the net by the 10-minute mark and although Luca Kronberger halved the deficit with 19 minutes on the clock, the Linzers put themselves firmly on the path to victory in the opening stages of the second half, with Conor Noß converting Ronivaldo’s assist to make it 3-1 seven minutes after the break and former WSG player Julian Peter Gölles extending the advantage to 4-1 in the 64th minute. Mahamadou Diarra did pull a goal back for the Tyroleans with a quarter of an hour remaining but it was too little too late. Thomas Silberberger’s winless team now find themselves down in 11th place – level on points with rock-bottom Austria Lustenau – while Blau Weiß Linz are now off the mark and have moved up to 10th spot.
CASHPOINT SCR Altach 1-2 SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz
Sturm Graz kept up the heat on early pace-setters Red Bull Salzburg with a narrow and dramatic victory over a resurgent Altach. The Grazers survived a couple of scares – Atdhe Nuhiu’s close-range finish was called back for offside and an erroneous penalty decision for a handball by David Schnegg was overturned – before taking the lead in the 63rd minute when Otar Kiteishvili pounced on a loose ball in the box and fired into the bottom corner. Altach eventually came out on the right side of a VAR decision when Paul Koller fired home from a narrow angle at the back post to level the scores. But it was Sturm who had the last laugh, securing all three points in the 91st minute when Mohammed Fuseini controlled Kiteishvili’s pass and beat the goalkeeper. Altach’s frustrations came to a head deep into stoppage time when Felix Strauss was dismissed for a second booking after remonstrating with the referee, who deemed the defender had not been fouled on a foray forward. The win kept Sturm two points behind Salzburg, while Altach slipped out of the top half of the table.
FC Red Bull Salzburg 2-0 SK Rapid Wien
Bundesliga leaders Red Bull Salzburg continued their perfect start to life under new coach Gerhard Struber by comfortably beating Rapid Vienna 2-0 at the Red Bull Arena. Roko Šimić scored his first two goals of the season in the 13th and 35th minutes, first firing Oscar Gloukh’s cross into the bottom corner – the goal was initially disallowed for offside but subsequently allowed to stand after a review by the video assistant – and then converting Karim Konaté’s low ball into the penalty area at the second attempt. Sékou Koïta almost added to the score with a lovely volley in the 64th minute and then had a goal ruled out for offside with five minutes remaining. The victory takes the Red Bulls’ unbeaten streak against the capital club to 17 games (W14 D3) and extends their undefeated run to 36 Bundesliga games overall (W28 D8) – a league record. Meanwhile, the defeat compounds a difficult week for Rapid, who missed out on qualification for the Conference League group stages in Florence on Thursday and are already 10 points off the summit at this early stage of the season.
LASK 2-0 SC Austria Lustenau
LASK followed up their qualification for the Europa League group stages, where they have been drawn in a group with the likes of English giants Liverpool, with a victory over Lustenau that carries them up to third place in the table. Frustrated coach Thomas Sageder saw his side struggle to break down the lowly Voarlbergers in the opening period, with a series of half-chances spurned before the interval. But the introduction of Elias Havel at the break made a tangible difference in attack for the Linzers. The 20-year-old almost opened the scoring just after the hour mark with a delightful back-flick, only for the goal to be ruled out for an offside in the build-up. But LASK’s breakthrough finally came when Philipp Ziereis headed home Sascha Horvath’s corner-kick with 11 minutes remaining – the first set-piece goal they have scored all season. Thomas Goiginger then slotted home Havel’s dangerous square ball in the sixth minute of stoppage time to round off the win. Lustenau, one of only two teams yet to win a Bundesliga game this season along with WSG Tirol, now find themselves at the foot of the table.
FK Austria Wien 2-2 SK Austria Klagenfurt
Austria Klagenfurt continued their impressive unbeaten start to the Bundesliga season (W2 D4) with a draw away at Austria Vienna, but will likely be ruing a missed opportunity after conceding a last-gasp equaliser. It was the Violets that opened the scoring in the third minute of the match when Hakim Guenouche headed home Reinhold Ranftl’s cross into the penalty area. But the Carinthians were quick to draw back on level terms, with Sinan Karweina capitalising on a defensive mix-up to take his tally to the season for five – level at the top of the goalscoring charts with Hartberg’s Maximilian Entrup. After the interval, new signing Fisnik Asllani won a penalty for Austria which was overturned by the referee after consulting his pitchside monitor. Having survived a flurry of opposition chances, Kosmas Gezos headed home a Christopher Cvetko corner to complete the turnaround for Klagenfurt, but Andreas Gruber’s stoppage-time header from Aleksandar Jukic’s free-kick stole a point for the home team.
Redakteur: The Other Bundesliga
Fotos: GEPA pictures