After the third round of the Bundesliga, Rapid is the first pursuer of the flawless league leaders Salzburg. The Hütteldorfers celebrated a 2-0 home victory against WSG Tirol on Sunday and are now one point ahead of the duo Sturm Graz and Altach with seven points. The Vorarlbergers inflicted the second defeat on WAC with a 2-0 win. Hartberg and Vienna’s Austria Vienna drew 1-1.
The Styrian team is still winless in eleventh place, while Austria are seventh with four points. On Saturday, champions Sturm beat bottom-placed Klagenfurt 2-0 away, and Salzburg won 1-0 at LASK (9th). GAK (10th) and Blau-Weiß Linz (7th) drew 2-2.
Record champion Rapid secured a well-deserved 2-0 (1-0) home victory on Sunday in front of 15,200 spectators at the Allianz Stadium against WSG Tirol, who had previously been level on points and goals. This also meant a successful dress rehearsal before the first leg of the Europa League play-off on Thursday (9.30 p.m.) in Portugal against Sporting Braga. There, the aim is to create a good starting position in the fight for a place in the group phase of the second most important European cup competition.
Dion Beljo (42′) opened the victory against the Tyroleans with his fourth competitive goal in the Green-Whites’ jersey. Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao (67′) was then the next summer signing. In contrast to the league performance in Klagenfurt (1:1) after the first leg win at Trabzonspor, this time the result after the international match on Thursday was also good. The “next step” hoped for by Klauß was taken, with the seventh win in the eighth competitive match under his leadership. The guests, meanwhile, suffered their first defeat in the fourth competitive match under Philipp Semlic, but are still doing well in the table in sixth place. The negative thing for them was that two players, Lennart Czyborra and Lukas Hinterseer, had to leave the team injured before the break.
Meanwhile, Altach has shaken off its initial worries. The Vorarlberg team celebrated their second win in a row with a 2-0 (1-0) victory over WAC and moved up to fourth place in the table. Man of the match was once again Gustavo Santos with a brace (24th, 51st). The Brazilian also scored in his third league game in a row and has now scored five goals. For the first time this season, Altach kept a clean sheet, securing their first home win since December 5th of last year.
TSV Hartberg was the last club to score in the Bundesliga on Sunday. The East Styrian team picked up their first point of the season with a 1:1 (1:1) home match against Austria Vienna and gave up the last place in the table to Austria Klagenfurt. Patrik Mijic equalized the early deficit through Maurice Malone (3′) after great preparatory work by Justin Omoregie (28′), but in the second half TSV missed several chances to win.
