Austria was turning better: in the quarter-finals they beat the defending champion Sturm in Graz again

Austrian coach Stephan Helm also risked a round in the cup round of 16 against late second division third-to-last SV Horn. This worked better than with Rapid. Helm was satisfied with six positions, and in the end there was a celebration of the 1-0 (0-0) thanks to a goal from “Wingback” Reinhold Ranftl in the second attempt after 26 minutes. Unlike Rapid, the Austrian was no longer surprised in the Waldviertel, Horn remained unharmed. So it remained “zero” for the purple cup keeper Mirko Kos. Due to the other changes in the starting eleven compared to the 3.0 against WSG Tirol, Lucas Galvao, Abukar Barry, the youngster Philipp Maybach, the Bayern loanee Matteo Perez-Vinlöf and Marco Raguz started. For the striker, this was his first appearance in the first eleven since February 2022, at that time at LASK. Captain Manfred Fischer and Andreas Gruber (in place of Raguz) only played in the second half, Maurice Malone only in the final.

The Austrians were not happy when they found out the draw for the quarter-finals on the bus ride home. Like last season, there is a clash against defending champions Sturm Graz, who again have home advantage. In February, Austria had no chance at 0-2, and a year later they will be only outsiders. Sturm beat Blau Weiß Linz 2-1 (2-0) at home on Wednesday, with Turkish striker Erecan Yardemci, who was used for the first time at the start, sure: Assist the opening goal by Lovro Zvonarek, who got himself a 2.0. Initially Mika Biereth, Malick Yaloure and William Boving were rested from the regular staff, while central defenders Emanuel Aiwu and Niklas Geyrhofer each played half. The break for Yalcoure lasted only 28 minutes: then he replaced the injured Tochi Chukwuani.

LASK is the second hit against Red Bull Salzburg. This duel also took place in the quarter-finals last season. Back then, Salzburg won 3-2 in Linz. On Wednesday they took the first small step out of the slump with a 3-0 (1-0) win against WSG Tirol. Playing in the middle of the defense alongside Kamil Piatkowski was the 17-year-old Swede Joane Gadou, who was signed by Paris St. Germain in the summer for ten million euros. LASK struggled to make it 2-1 (1-1) in Styria against the second division team Voitsberg, who led for eight minutes. Then captain Robert Zulj equalised, and after the break substitute captain Philipp Ziereis scored the winning goal.

Rapid was not the only Bundesliga club to lose against a team in the second division. This also happened to the last GAK team without a win with 1:2 (0:1) at the third place in the second division, Schwarz Weiß Bregenz. Daniel Maderner equalized for Vorarlberg’s lead after 75 minutes thanks to Brazil’s Renan Nepomuceno, and soon after Marco Vucenic fired Bregenz into the last eight. In the spring he played with the Styrian club, Lafnitz, in league two against GAK. In the quarter-finals, Bregenz will have to go to Wolfsberger AC in Carinthia. He only won the Carinthian derby at home on penalties. After 45 minutes Klagenfurt led 1-0, Thomas Sabitzer made 1.1. Afterwards, Thierno Ballo gave Wolfsberg the lead, and centre-back Jannik Robatsch took Klagenfurt to penalties. In which decided only the 20th penalty (!). Robatsch, of all people, failed because of Wolfsberg goalkeeper Nikolas Polster. This makes it 9:8 in the penalty shootout, 3:2 overall for Wolfsberg.

Photo: FK Austria/amapics.at.

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