Fabio Ingolitsch’s term as coach of SK Sturm started with a defeat. The Graz team lost 3-0 at Feyenoord Rotterdam and thus missed the chance to win a final against Brann Bergen next week to advance in the Europa League.
The new coach’s first starting eleven contained mostly expected names and one big surprise. With the in-house talent Luca Weinhandl, Ingolitsch set an accent towards a new start. The Fernitzer was born in 2009, only recently turned 17 and was a regular player in the team that sensationally reached the final at the U17 World Cup. With his competitive debut in the first team, Weinhandl became the youngest Austrian ever to play in the Europa League. Otherwise, there were mainly question marks regarding the composition of the central defense, which were answered with the duo Emanuel Aiwu and Tim Oermann. Jeyland Mitchell took a seat on the bench against his former club.
Early backlog
The start of the game was anything but perfect. The plan was actually to take risks going forward with a compact defense as a basis. The implementation of this plan was severely affected in the fifth minute of the game when Tsuyoshi Watanabe (5th) was allowed to head the ball from a corner to give the home team the lead. Daniil Khudiakov, the new number one striker, was powerless and had little to do in the remainder of the first half.
Because when they moved backwards, the Styrians were not shocked by the loss and defended consistently. There was little to nothing going forward, as illustrated by a meager xG value (expected goals) of 0.04 at the break. It was Weinhandl (9th) who made the first – albeit harmless – attempt. Seedy Jatta missed the best opportunity in the 15th minute with a lob that narrowly missed the goal. There wasn’t much more.
Shaqueel van Persie came on
Even after the break, there were initially few chances. Ingolitsch reacted for the first time in the 58th minute and sent striker Axel Kayombo, who had recovered in time, into the race instead of Jatta. His counterpart Robin van Persie relied on his son Shaqueel van Persie after his two-goal gala at the weekend. A volley from Otar Kiteishvili proved that Sturm still knew where the opponent’s goal was, but it turned out to be a boomerang. Because Feyenoord countered quickly, Graz were unable to sustainably stop the counterattack and had to watch as Anis Hadj Moussa (69th) made it 2-0.
Weinhandl’s debut ended in the 74th minute and he made way for Filip Rozga. A few minutes later, Mitchell, Jacob Hödl and Belmin Beganovic, who were well received by the home crowd, also came into play. This didn’t bring about a change. Rather, Feyenoord celebrated the third goal by Goncalo Borges (89th).
