Kühbauer after LASK victory: “There are other forces at play at Rapid”

After the 3-1 home win over Rapid on Sunday it is SHOT well on his way to third place in the Bundesliga. The “athletes” are seven points ahead of green and white in fourth place, even the “vice” seems possible. The weakened Rapid, on the other hand, was literally played against the wall in the first half, couldn’t turn things around and had to fight against the home game Salzburg (Wednesday) or the cup final on Sunday against Storm Graz increase clearly.

“It can be tight, we know that,” emphasized the Rapid offensive man Marco Grüll after the second defeat in the master group. “If we play like we did in the first half, we probably won’t stay fourth, we have to be open and honest about that.” The 24-year-old’s warning has substance, after all arch-rivals Austria are lurking a point behind, even Klagenfurt, bottom of the championship group, are only two points behind with six laps to go.

No LASK flights of fancy

LASK does not have comparable worries after the second win in the fourth game (two draws) of the final phase of the season. The points account has been increased, the “athletes” also knew how to play in the first half – with the support of Rapids – to please. Coach Dietmar Kühbauer was still trying to let the expectations run wild. “We now have a cushion on Rapid and Austria, but there are still points up for grabs. I watch from game to game and that won’t change. You can’t start flying because of a win against Rapid.”

And Kühbauer then also teased his ex-club: “Rapid played well with me too,” said the LASK coach. And he added somewhat cryptically: “But other forces are at play with Rapid.”

Central defender Philipp Ziereis didn’t want to have anything to do with looking towards second place either. He prefers to emphasize the strengths of his squad, the rest will be seen. “We made another step forward in the championship round. We’ve become more stable, we can deliver week after week, we may have lacked that consistency in the first half of the season,” he explained. “We can keep up with the top teams.”

Momentum for Rapid

Last but not least, the Upper Austrians should be reminded of humility by the start of the second half against Rapid. In the first ten, 15 minutes, it was almost a mirror image of the first half of the game, when Robert Zulj’s double (10th, 34th) only insufficiently reflected the balance of power. The goal scored by Ferdy Druijf (52nd), who stood in for the suspended goalkeeper Guido Burgstaller, was deserved at this point and made it exciting again. “We thought we had the game under control too much,” said LASK midfielder Sascha Horvath, whose team eventually found their way back and brought about the preliminary decision through ex-Rapidler Filip Stojkovic (80th).

“We were suddenly on the trigger, played the ball seriously, were more present in the pressing and deserved to get the goal. I had the feeling that we had the momentum on our side,” said Rapid coach Zoran Barisic after the phase the change of sides. “The third goal was another gift from us and then it was over like you pulled the plug on us.”

In his opinion, the increase was also due to changes. “In the first half we were like rabbits in front of a snake. The team showed a completely different face after the break. The players who were then on the field took on more responsibility, played more simply, and didn’t lose the ball so easily.” , he said of Patrick Greil and Dejan Petrovic coming on for Roman Kerschbaum and Aleksa Pejic. The latter had initiated the second goal of Linz with his hesitation.

He did not want to accept the failures of Burgstaller, Schick and some others as an excuse. “There were a lot of individual mistakes, the courage wasn’t there to simply solve certain things. Poor concentration, nervousness, I don’t know,” said Barisic. He didn’t want to rule out that the upcoming cup final could also have played a role. “It’s human, it’s just in the head. I’m trying to get it out of the head.”