SK Rapid continued their negative series against Red Bull Salzburg in the 20th round of the Bundesliga on Sunday. The Viennese lost in the Allianz Arena in front of 24,200 spectators, including ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick, the champion 2: 4 (1: 1). The Hütteldorfer have been without a win for four years or 17 cross-competitive games in which they lost 15 times. In the fight for the championship group, Rapid is fourth, three points above the line.
Nicolas Seiwald put the guests ahead after just four minutes, Bernhard Zimmermann equalized just before the break (44th). Substitute Benjamin Sesko (80th, 84th, 87th) became the match winner with a hat trick within seven minutes. Guido Burgstaller only managed to improve the result (95th). Captain Andreas Ulmer played his 400th league game for the Bulls, something only 34 players had done before him. Coach Matthias Jaissle’s team has a nine-point lead over second Sturm Graz in the table and will be traveling to LASK next Sunday. Rapid receives WSG Tirol on the same day.
Barisic only changed his starting eleven in one position compared to the 2-1 away win in Wolfsberg: The recovered Marco Grüll replaced Ante Bajic on the left offensive side. The ailing Oliver Strunz was not in the squad again. There was only one change for Salzburg compared to the 2-0 win at home against Ried, Luka Sucic played instead of Oscar Gloukh.
Rapid was caught cold by the guests after less than four minutes. A quick free-kick from Nicolas Capaldo landed in a roundabout way at Ulmer. With a fine pass from the outside, the jubilee served Seiwald, who was completely free in the middle, and who had little trouble scoring his second Bundesliga goal.
As a result, a battle-focused game developed in which both teams acted on an equal footing. The Viennese got into the game better, but Burgstaller aimed too high with a long-range shot (21′). Referee Dieter Muckenhammer gave both players a yellow card (25′).
Inaccuracies in the structure of the game then prevented both sides from scoring chances – up to the 44th minute. A long ball from Niklas Hedl found Marco Grüll, who prevailed in a duel against an indisposed Amar Dedic and set up the ball perfectly for Zimmermann. The 21-year-old netted to equalize with the right and scored his seventh goal of the season.
In added time, Sucic had to leave the field and was replaced by Gloukh. Jaissle also took out Noah Okafor at the break and brought on Sesko. The hit continued to be intense, but playful highlights remained the exception. Both teams largely neutralized each other. A VAR intervention after a foul by Aleksa Pejic on Lucas Gourna-Douath caused the greatest excitement for the time being, referee Muckenhammer decided on a yellow card (69th).
The game picked up speed again. Burgstaller initially had the Rapid lead at his head, but after a Kasius cross, the striker was denied by a spectacularly reacting Philipp Köhn (78th). The Salzburg goalie also defused Grüll’s margin. Substitute Sesko became the match winner on the other side. The Slovenian initially used an unfortunate rebound from Rapid central defender Michael Sollbauer to lead the visitors again (80′).
Four minutes later, the striker followed suit and coldly converted a pass from Gloukh to make it 3-1. But Sesko didn’t have enough of that and shortly afterwards increased to 4:1. This sealed the champions’ 16th win of the season in the league. Burgstaller finally scored with a head in added time.