Bundesliga: Salzburg collapses in the finish

In order for Salzburg to celebrate, the Styrians are unlikely to win again, and the “Bulls” would have to win their last two games – the latter is doubtful given their appearance at the Allianz Stadium. Because the defending champions didn’t create a single compelling scoring opportunity against Rapid.

Controversial referee decisions did the rest, but coach Onur Cinel didn’t want to make excuses for referee Christian-Petru Ciochirca. “We had too little penetration and positional discipline, too few shots on goal,” said the German, criticizing his team’s performance.

Rapid wins against Salzburg

With the 2-0 win, Rapid won against Salzburg for the first time in 22 competitive games. For Salzburg, the defeat meant a serious setback in the title duel with Sturm Graz.

“A lot of factors came together”

The Salzburg team only got one win from the last seven competition games – a devastating result for Red Bull’s claims. Cinel left it open whether this negative series was due to a lack of quality, many injuries or perhaps even internal team disagreements. “There is never one reason, there are certainly many factors that come together. It’s important that we discuss these things internally.”

In contrast to last week’s 2-2 draw at home against Sturm, when a 0-2 deficit was made up for, this time there was no rebellion from Salzburg. “Our reaction to the goals we conceded against Sturm was significantly better than against Rapid,” admitted Cinel. Nevertheless, the 38-year-old does not see any character weakness in his team, but described the current problems as a “mental thing”. He also suggested that there could be deficiencies in the physical area. “Rapid has asserted himself physically more often than us, that has to be discussed. There was a lack of intensity and power.”

Drop back to third place possible

If Sturm comes out on top in the end, Salzburg could miss out on the Champions League millions they have been accustomed to in the coming season. As runner-up, there would still be the – difficult – path through qualification, but even second place is now shaky. LASK, which is three points behind but is currently very strong, still faces Sturm and Salzburg and would overtake the “Bulls” if they win these games. Third place would be Salzburg’s worst performance since it was taken over by Red Bull in 2005.

Bundesliga

Schedule and table

According to Cinel, he is not concerned with this scenario, nor with his own chances of becoming a champion. “At the moment I’m just thinking about the next two games. We owe it to our fans and ourselves to bring our football to the pitch.”

No luck with referee decisions

In Salzburg they are also hoping for more benevolent referee whistles. The guests called for penalties in vain on Sunday after attacks from Leo Querfeld on Strahinja Pavlovic and Nikolas Sattlberger on Karim Konate and were annoyed by an unpunished bump from Fally Mayulu on Mads Bistrup immediately before Rapids made it 2-0, as well as a foul that was not penalized with a red card Thorsten Schick. Nevertheless, Cinel was diplomatic. “Many 50:50 situations were decided against us, but we didn’t play well today, especially in the second half. This is disappointing.”

While referee Ciochirca explained that all delicate situations had been assessed correctly, even Rapid coach Robert Klauß admitted: “If he decides on a penalty for Sattlberger, we can’t complain.” Klauß assessed that it didn’t happen that way after the match Wednesday’s cup final lost against Sturm as balancing justice. “Today the VAR was on our side. At some point luck has to come back again.”

Rapid shows character

The 1:2 in the cup final was a heavy blow for Rapid, the first victory over Salzburg after 22 unsuccessful attempts eased the pain. Klauß raved about the “attitude, mentality and tactical approach” of his five-man team. “We wanted to show that we can get back up.”

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Rapid puts Salzburg at risk for the title

The performance of Querfeld, who suffered a deep bruise on his knee after a duel with Konate in the early stages, was emblematic of this. Everything pointed to the ÖFB team player being replaced, but Querfeld had the wound stitched up in the dressing room and returned to the pitch a few minutes later to great cheers from the audience. “That shows that he leaves his heart on the pitch for us. This campaign gave us another push, the team and also the stadium. From that moment on we believed even more that we could do it,” said Klauß.

“We only look at ourselves”

By all accounts, his club actually tipped the scales in this season’s title decisions. While the Hütteldorfers lost three times in a row against Sturm, they probably took the decisive points from Salzburg, the duel four weeks ago in Wals-Siezenheim ended 1-1. “But we only look at ourselves. They should see to it that they are doing their job, we are doing ours,” said Klauß.

With a win on Sunday at Austria Klagenfurt and a simultaneous defeat for Hartberg against Salzburg, Rapid would definitely be fourth, would avoid the European Cup play-off and enter the second round of the Europa League qualification.

2024-05-06 08:55:10
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