After the zero number, the Wolfsbergers are still one point behind leader Austria Vienna, who in turn couldn’t get beyond a 1-1 draw against bottom team Austria Lustenau. Blue-White, on the other hand, are already waiting eleven games for a complete success and are six points behind the WAC in fourth place. The lead over Lustenauer is five points.
The WAC clearly dominated the brisk opening phase in front of 5,000 fans in the Hofmann Personal Stadium and also had a half-chance through Thierno Ballo, but it was lost to BW goalie Nicolas Schmid (5th). The home team then worked their way a little better into a game that hardly offered anything worth mentioning for a long time. While the Linz defense offered little to the Carinthians, BW was unable to take advantage of the few moments they had in transition.
Before the break, things picked up a bit again. After one of Linz’s rare presentations during an alleged handball by WAC player Jonathan Scherzer, the penalty alarm sounded, but was not heard (40th). On the other hand, a ball header bounced back off the post (42′).
Faster second half
There was more action in the second 45 minutes, with the drive to the goal gaining momentum on both sides. After just over an hour, Ronivaldo missed his greatest opportunity to date with a single header and the ball clearly went wide of the goal (61′). Julian Gölles (69′) and Simon Seidl (72′) also lacked precision when heading, and the WAC knocked on the crossbar a little later through Sandro Altunashvili (63′).
In the finish, the Linzers were closer to victory. A long-range shot from Gölles whizzed just past the far corner (85′), but “Joker” Kristijan Dobras’ header failed. In the end, they also couldn’t prevent the fourth BW game without a goal.
Voices about the game:
Gerald Scheiblehner (BW Linz coach): “We did very well defensively, also with luck with the shots against the bar and crossbar. Ultimately we have to be very happy with this point. This qualifying round is all about staying in the league. If we can do that, then we have achieved our goal.”
Manfred Schmid (WAC coach): “With the bar and the crossbar hit, a victory would not have been undeserved. We finally played football again today. I’m happy with the performance. The games in the qualifying group are consistently not good. There is a lot of fear of defeat, a lot of relegation battle, you can feel the uncertainty. The situation with the penalty was a 50:50 chance and you can give it.”
Admiral Bundesliga, 25th round, qualifying group
Saturday:
Blau-Weiß Linz – WAC 0-0
Hofmann Personal Stadium, 5,000; SR Weinberger
BW Linz: Schmid – Tursch (70th/Pasic), Maranda, Strauss, Pirkl – Krainz (46th/Gölles), Koch (86th/Dobras), Briedl – Mensah, Ronivaldo (69th/holiday), Noß (56th/S .Seidl)
WAC: Bonmann – Veratschnig, Diabate, Baumgartner, Scherzer – Jasic, Leitgeb, Altunashvili (68./Tijani) – Sabitzer (81./Omic), Röcher (81./Zimmermann), Ballo (62./Karamoko)
Yellow cards: Tursch, Noß and Diabate
