In the basement duel against SV Ried, TSV Hartberg is not only aiming for the first win in the qualifying group, but also for the end of the current winless series. After three games without three points, only three points count for the East Styrians in the away game in the Innviertel to distance themselves a little from the bottom.
Markus Schopp wants to get back on the road to success with his team.
GEPA pictures
TSV Hartberg has been waiting for the next win for three games. The start in the lower play-off went wrong with the narrow 0:1 home defeat against promoted Austria Lustenau, so that you still occupy the penultimate place in the table. Before the basement duel against bottom light Ried, the East Styrians have to collect points in order to gain some breathing space in the tight relegation battle and to bring the Upper Austrians, who are currently tied on points, at a distance. Under head coach Markus Schopp, the Hartbergers showed themselves to be greatly improved in the first seven games in spring, only when evaluating chances did they present themselves too negligently.
With Ried, however, there is a duel against an opponent who has already been defeated twice in the current championship. Both in the first duel in autumn (2-0) and when they met again at the start of spring (1-0), the Hartbergers didn’t concede a goal and definitely want to continue this series. Overall, the penultimate table has been undefeated for four games against the competitor from Upper Austria. In the overall balance, however, Rieder are ahead with eight to six wins in 20 duels. In the Bundesliga, too, the East Styrians’ balance sheet is slightly negative despite two wins in the regular season with two to three defeats.
Hartberg with a good record against bottom of the table
However, head coach Schopp can fall back on vice-captain and key player Jürgen Heil for the away game in Ried, who recently had to serve a yellow card suspension in the home game against Lustenau. But Lukas Fadinger is missing after his fifth yellow card against the Upper Austrians. Attacker Dario Tadic, on the other hand, is about to play his 200th Bundesliga game and hopes to finally be able to celebrate a goal again after five goalless games. In the past two games, however, the experienced striker was only used as a joker for the last 30 minutes.
The experienced striker will again compete in a duel with Ried goalkeeper Samuel Sahin-Radlinger, who is fit again after his injury and after his cup appearance against Rapid will also be in charge of the Innviertel team on Easter Saturday. Hartberg is encouraged that they have not lost in the past seven games against a bottom team and have won five. In four of the last five Bundesliga duels against the bottom team, you have not conceded a goal, on the other hand, in the previous duels between the bottom and the penultimate team, the bottom team has always prevailed this year.
