SK Rapid surprisingly missed their third win in the third league game against promoted Austria Lustenau and gave up the lead in the Bundesliga! Hütteldorfer had to settle for a disappointing 1-1 (1-0) against Vorarlberg on Sunday and thus also messed up the dress rehearsal for the European Cup showdown against Neftci Baku on Thursday.
Guido Burgstaller deservedly put the Viennese ahead in front of 17,600 spectators in the Allianz Stadium (21st). After a hard yellow-red card against Ante Bajic (57th), Stefano Surdanovic (70th) managed to equalize for Markus Mader’s team with a majority. For Rapid it was the first goal in the third league game, equivalent to the first loss of points. With seven points, Ferdinand Feldhofer’s team is now in second place behind LASK due to the worse goal difference, the Lustenauer have four points in the account. After the 2-1 defeat in the first leg of the Conference League qualifiers at Neftci Baku, the Feldhofer team will be in the playoffs on Thursday (8:30 p.m.). After the trip to Azerbaijan, which ended with a return flight on Friday morning Feldhofer changed his starting line-up to five positions. The defensive line in particular was almost completely re-formed with birthday boy Maximilian Hofmann, Thorsten Schick and U19 team player Leopold Querfeld, who was making his season debut. It was also Querfeld who dangerously approached the opposing goal with a header in the early stages (8′). It lasted until the 21st minute when Green-White struck after a too-short kick from Lustenau goalie Domenik Schierl: Burgstaller completed a one-two with Marco Grüll in the penalty area with a direct shot into the far corner. The guests complained about a supposed Burgstaller handball in advance, but referee Stefan Ebner allowed the goal after consultation with VAR Sebastian Gishamer. For the 33-year-old, it was the fourth goal in the seventh game since his return. While the Lustenau team didn’t really come into their own in the first half, the Feldhof team only became really dangerous after Austria made mistakes. Lustenau captain Matthias Maak had to scrape a Grüll shot off the line after Schierl had lost the ball completely unnecessarily against Kühn. A shot by Greil also landed on the crossbar (45+1). The picture changed after the break. The Vorarlbergers came out of the dressing room much more courageously and found good opportunities through Maak (50th) and Lukas Fridrikas (51st). Jonas Auer prevented things from getting worse with a risky tackle in the penalty area against Lustenau’s winger Bryan Teixeira (53′). In direct return, Schierl excelled in a Burgstaller header. Shortly thereafter, the Feldhofer team made life even more difficult. Bajic jumped into a duel with an open sole, but withdrew in time – for referee Ebner an offense worthy of exclusion . Despite being outnumbered, Rapid balanced the game, and Lustenau defender Jean Hugonet missed the match ball in added time. 21.) Burgstaller, 1: 1 (70.) Surdanovic
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