The signs for Rapid’s first Viennese football derby victory in the Allianz Stadium seem to be better than ever. While Hütteldorfer hadn’t played since the 5-0 win at WSG Tirol last Saturday, Austria lost 3-0 at home against Sturm on Sunday and 5-0 at Villarreal on Thursday. In addition, there is a precarious personnel situation at the “Violets”, coach Ferdinand Feldhofer, on the other hand, can fall back on almost his entire squad.
Nevertheless, the Styrian warned of the 337th Derby on Sunday, which was sold out with 26,000 spectators (from 4:15 p.m. live on Sky Sport Austria 3 – Stream the ADMIRAL Bundesliga with Sky X for only 15 euros a month) from excessive optimism. The thrashing in Innsbruck was “a step in the right direction, but nothing more,” explained Feldhofer, but also admitted that the much lower workload on his squad in the past few days was “certainly not a disadvantage”.
According to the Rapid coach, the week went “very pleasantly”. “There’s a lot of tinder in training,” reported the 42-year-old. After nine games against Austria in the new arena, his club has a record of three defeats and six draws, which Feldhofer leaves relatively cold. “I can’t do much with this series,” said the ex-defender.
After all, the last derby winner so far is called Rapid – on September 1, 2019, the Hütteldorfers managed a 3:1 at the distribution circuit. Seven draws followed, and in the pre-season all four matches ended 1-1. Should Rapid win this time, it would probably have a certain relaxation effect after the recent difficult weeks. “The game is a bit more important than a normal league match, it’s an absolute highlight of every season,” said Feldhofer.
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In the offensive, the coach says he is “very pleasantly spoiled for choice” – with Guido Burgstaller, Marco Grüll, Ferdy Druijf and Bernhard Zimmermann four attackers scored recently, and Nicolas Kühn was also in good form. However, the German is doubtful for the derby due to a bruise, his assignment will probably only be decided on the day of the game.
But Burgstaller is fit and full of energy. “The last few weeks have shown that we are on the right track,” said the Carinthian. The ex-ÖFB international did not want to see the recent double burden on Austria as a disadvantage for the archrival. “On Thursday they held up well against a very strong opponent up to the 70th minute. As a player there is nothing better than playing every third day, we would have liked that too. We will certainly not say that they will collapse at some point, but want to go full throttle,” announced Burgstaller.
The Austria entourage only returned from Spain on Friday afternoon. Before the departure, coach Manfred Schmid was confident that the removal against Villarreal didn’t leave his kickers cracked. “From the mental side, I’m not worried at all. The team is willing to learn, we know how to classify that.”
After the recent setbacks, it’s good to have an important game in front of you again. “A derby might come in handy to get you back up. That can also release energy in the players,” explained Schmid, emphasizing: “I don’t have the feeling that the team is broken.”
At Rapid, “the whole club is going through a difficult phase. But Feldhofer stayed calm and believes in his game idea,” Schmid stated. In terms of personnel, no relief in the Austria hospital seems foreseeable. With Andreas Gruber, another important man is in danger of dropping out. The winger was ruled out for Villarreal having been ailing since the start of the week. Whether Marvin Martins can be called up after his adductor problems is questionable. The actual right-back would be asked on the left. There is still the largest construction site.
Dario Kreiker was overwhelmed in Valencia, Manuel Polster, who also normally plays further up the field, did a little better after a change of sides thanks to his speed. Hope remains that Matan Baltaxa will be available in the foreseeable future. The Israeli, who was signed in June, made his Austria debut with the Young Violets in the second division on Friday after suffering a long-term ankle injury.
(APA)/Image: GEPA