The conditions for the home game of Bundesliga club LASK on Pentecost Sunday (5 p.m.) against Wiener Austria could not be more unequal. While the black-and-whites, who are cemented in third place, are no longer concerned, at least in the table, Austria Vienna is fully involved in the fight for the European Cup millions. With fourth place you would be in the Conference League qualifiers, with fifth place you would also have to compete against a team from the promotion group within Austria. And if you were sixth, you would get nothing at all. The points in Linz would be all the more important on Sunday.
Of course, the game gets an additional explosiveness, because with Jurgen Werner For the first time, the former LASK Vice President guested with the violets in the Raiffeisen Arena. There will be no negative nuances from him or from the LASK President on Sunday Siegmund Gruber give – and that’s not played either. The basis for discussion is good, you meet each other automatically in day-to-day business. Most importantly, both sides have evolved. LASK has emancipated itself from Werner. The team that took third place this year bears the signature of Werner’s successor Radovan Vujanovic. In the “regular eleven” with the most minutes is only the quartet Alexander Schlager, Rene Renner, Peter Michorl and Keito Nakamura was already in the squad before Werner’s ban in June 2021. Nakamura will only be under trainer from autumn 2021 Andreas Wieland was used regularly.
At the beginning of the season, everyone would have agreed that third place and the associated fixed place in the European Cup group phase could already be fixed in the third to last game of the season. After eighth place in the previous season, many had already predicted the complete crash of LASK. Wherein coach Didi Kühbauer didn’t work any miracles either, if you think back to those games in which LASK exhausted its full performance potential – and that was rarely the case. LASK also took the next long-term steps before this game. Sascha Horvath (bis 2027), Rene Renner (until 2026) and Robert Zulj (until 2027) extended their contracts long-term yesterday.
At Austria, things are being cleaned up
On the other hand, Werner has sported Austria despite the turbulence surrounding the presidential election (the managing director of Wien Holding, Kurt Gollowitzerfollows the German Frank Hensel) and the license theater, which the business manager, Gerhard Krisch, which will cost the job, well on track. However, third place from the previous season could not be repeated because there were and are too many construction sites for the violets. This also includes the automatic brake on the Viennese clubs from having to consult various committees for every decision. There is no flat hierarchy. Werner has recently positioned himself well, placed himself in the front row and extended his elbows to enforce his demands.
The criticism after the controversial dismissal of ex-coach Manfred Schmid he has consciously attracted and with Michael Wimmer installed a trainer who stands for Werner’s game philosophy. That Harry Tabakovic takes on the role of the scorer, which is actually for ex-LASK players Marko Raguz would have been considered, also makes the work easier. The spirit of optimism in Vienna is more noticeable than it was in autumn. In the two remaining games against LASK and FC Salzburg you will also need this tailwind to be able to hold fourth place in the table.
ÖFB team goalkeeper Alexander Schlager in the “People” section on page 4
