The 31st and penultimate round of the Bundesliga is scheduled for Sunday (5:00 p.m.). For the current third Rapid speaks little before the home game against champions Salzburg. The Hütteldorfer have not won in four rounds, have not won against the “bulls” in eleven league duels and are plagued by major personnel problems. Eleven players are fixed. Vice-champion Sturm Graz receives the WAC, the Vienna Austria has to go to the “sisters club” in Klagenfurt.
Rapid has to give up against Salzburg, among others, Dejan Petrovic, who has been unavailable for months due to a cruciate ligament rupture sustained in training. Niklas Hedl, Maximilian Hofmann and Bernhard Zimmermann are out due to suspensions. In addition, according to coach Ferdinand Feldhofer, Filip Stojkovic is “more than questionable”. Putting together the team for Sunday is like a “daily tinkering hour,” said Feldhofer, and spoke of other ailing players who were not mentioned by name. “The omens are not good,” admitted the Rapid coach, “but with our fans behind us, we want to play a great game and collect points.”
By Friday noon, over 19,000 tickets had been sold. In the race for the important final place, his team has a two-point lead over Austria with three laps to go before the end of the championship group. While Rapid is going away against WAC after the Salzburg match, the violets have the supposedly easier remaining program with Klagenfurt (away) and Sturm (home). “We want to keep third place to the finish. The starting position is very exciting, but we still have a very good starting position and our fate is in our own hands,” explained Feldhofer.
Salzburg coach Matthias Jaissle would like to avoid losing points at all costs. “Our goals haven’t changed: we want to win the last few games and round off this extraordinary season. That’s what motivates us. The records would be a nice by-product.” Should the “Bulls” win the last two matches, they would have equaled the winning record of Wiener Austria from the 1985/86 season with 26 successes. Back then, however, 36 rounds were played, four more than now. “There is a lot at stake for Rapid – they will perform accordingly. We will be challenged from the first minute,” warned the German.
Runner-up Sturm can play freely in front of a full house at the end of the season, but there is a lot at stake for the visiting WAC. After a weak spring, fourth place and thus the fixed European Cup ticket are shaking. You could even lose fifth place. As usual, coach Robert Dutt exercised restraint: “There is always some kind of pressure.” If Klagenfurt wins and at the same time loses points in the home game against Vienna Austria, at least fifth place and thus participation in the European Cup play-off would be secured, even third place is still within reach two rounds before the end.
In the past few weeks, the media topic has been fewer possible successes than the impending departures of director Michael Liendl and Co. So it can only get better in the end. “We’re currently on the ground,” said goalie Alexander Kofler in Salzburg in plain language, while Dutt tried to stop the negative spiral. After all, you weren’t always the worse team. “We will not deal with the negative, because otherwise this goal is not possible,” he said with regard to the EC ticket.
Meanwhile, Sturm is looking forward to a kind of final party with around 16,000 spectators. “The last home game in front of a full house is a special thing. It confirms the good season,” said successful coach Christian Ilzer. The Styrian, who always described spring (six wins in eight games) as “harvest time”, hasn’t had enough. “There’s still more to harvest, we want wins in the last two games as well,” emphasized the 44-year-old. “I still feel hunger, greed and tension during training. I want everyone to push themselves to the limit.”
In the fight for third place, Wiener Austria is also about setting the course. The “Violets” probably need an away win against Klagenfurt in the penultimate round of the championship group in order to stay fully in the race for the place that guarantees participation in a European Cup group phase and thus millions in income. Austria coach Manfred Schmid is aware of the starting position. “We’ll only make a big leap with three points. Our clear goal is a win in Klagenfurt: Then we’ll have a big final ahead of us,” said the Viennese. Finally, the Viennese are up against the storm in the Generali Arena.
Austria has been without a win for seven rounds, but that doesn’t worry Schmid too much. “Even if the results weren’t always what I wanted, I’m satisfied with the form my team is in. With the exception of the away game in Salzburg, the performances in the games of the last few weeks have been very ok, sometimes even very good. We want to continue that against Klagenfurt .”
The suspended Nicolas Wimmer is absent from Klagenfurt, otherwise the personnel problems of coach Peter Pacult are limited. This is one of the reasons why the Viennese radiated confidence. “We really want to win the game,” said Pacult. In sixth place, his club is three points behind fourth place held by Austria, which definitely means a place in the European Cup.