Sturm Graz also clearly defeated Blau-Weiss Linz 4:1

2023-08-26 19:35:00

Szymon Wlodarczyk (1st, 61st), William Böving (7th) and Manprit Sarkaria (76th/penalty) scored for the second in the table. The interim goal from an own goal by David Affengruber (54th) was not enough for the still winless tail light from Linz.

With the fourth win of the season, the Sturm-Elf prepared the worthy setting for Jakob Jantscher, who was bid farewell by 11,725 spectators after 250 games for Schwarz-Weiss. The 34-year-old, who was shown the door at the beginning of the season, will move to Hong Kong in the autumn of his career and is expected to return to Graz later in a different role.

Manprit Sarkaria and Stefan Hierländer returned to the squad for the runners-up after injuries; the duo initially sat on the bench. Meanwhile, Alexander Prass, who was being courted by SC Freiburg, was – possibly for the last time – in the starting XI, which Ilzer fielded in a 4-2-3-1. Gerald Scheiblehner also changed the basic order after the 0:5 against Rapid, relied on a three-man defense and made changes, especially on the right side.

The Linz coach stuck to the dogma of wanting to surprise even against the big players in the league with the courage to take risks. But his team had to learn the hard way in the upper house again. After 38 seconds, Wlodarczyk overcame Nicolas Schmid in the Linz goal for the first time. After Tobias Koch lost the ball, things went too fast for the guest defense. Schmid was still close to the Pole’s shot, but couldn’t prevent the goal.

Just six minutes later, Sturm made it 2-0. Again it was a half own goal. Stefan Haudum decisively deflected a Böving shot from an ambush (7th). The Upper Austrians got themselves into trouble with an attempt to free themselves in the center.

With the two-goal lead, the Grazers took it easy at well over 30 degrees. Connor Noß underlined the ambitions of the guests with a narrow miss (17th), who appeared hesitantly in front of storm goalie Kjell Scherpen with a few half-chances before the break. Early in the second half, however, the Dutchman was defeated for the first time in the championship. Julian Gölles hit the bar, the rebound pushed Sturms Affengruber over the line with his standing leg for the first own goal of the season (54th). Paul Mensah and Gölles had caught the again vulnerable storm defense on the counter.

Graz responded with their new goalscorer. Wlodarczyk defeated Marco Krainz seemingly effortlessly in the aerial duel and restored the two-goal lead with his head. Following this, Sarkaria made a picture-perfect comeback on his 27th birthday. Twelve minutes after coming on, he won a penalty against Michael Brandner and converted it himself to make it 4:1.

There should be one last highlight: After Sarkaria’s preliminary work, Wlodarczyk completed the turn powerfully in the left cross corner (86th). The goal did not count after VAR intervention. Mohammed Fuseini was in an offside position in goalie Schmid’s field of vision.