Hartberg still on the rise: home win against BW Linz

Diarra made a strong party for Hartberg.

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The TSV Hartberg still on the road to success in the Bundesliga under new coach Schmid. On Saturday, the East Styrian team narrowly but deservedly defeated Blau-Weiß Linz 2-1 (1-0) in the last game of the first half of the regular season and thus climbed to into the upper half of the table. Own goals from Wallner (6th) and Mijic (50th) gave Schmid his fourth win in his fifth game on the TSV coach’s bench.

Ronivaldo’s header in the 87th minute made for an exciting finale with his seventh goal of the season. This puts the Hartbergers in sixth place with 15 points after ten games. Schmid’s team overcame coach Scheiblehner’s Linzers, who are still 14 points on the count after their third defeat in the last four league games and one more game against the Styrians.

The hosts had a much better start in Hartberg. It took less than six minutes for Wallner to turn the ball with his shoulder in an aerial duel with Hartberg central defender Wilfinger and sink it effortlessly into the far corner of the crossbar. Linz got into the game a little better, but first they had to rethink their offense without Ronivaldo, who suffered a hip injury and sat on the bench.

Blue-White became dangerous after a corner, TSV goalkeeper Sallinger had to guide Pasic’s powerful header over the crossbar (22″). A shot (26th) and a header (31st) from Anderson Sallinger did not trouble. After the break, Hartberger had a great chance to make it 2-0 after just 35 seconds. But Mijic did not get Avdijaj’s cross on goal.

Trouble at Avdijaj

Soon after, the Croatian did one better: Mijic headed a pass from Pfeifer over the line in a duel with Wallner with contact for his fifth goal of the season. On the other side, Dobras failed with a shot past Sallinger (53′). Scheiblehner wanted to set new trends by replacing striker Ronivaldo. However, there were no big chances for a long time and the Hartbergers did not concede much. Avdijaj reacted somewhat emotionally after being substituted in the 76th minute; the offensive player angrily sought a direct route to the locker room. Ronivaldo’s goal came from nowhere too late.