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Vienna Austria inflicted its first domestic defeat of the season on Bundesliga leaders Sturm Graz.
The Violets won 1-0 (1-0) against Sturm in Graz on Saturday. Andreas Gruber scored the decisive goal in the 14th minute. The Styrians continue to lead the table into the 13th round, but are only one point ahead of defending champions Red Bull Salzburg. Austria is sixth in the league after its third win in a row.
Sturm dominated the first half of the game, but Austria scored the goal. Gruber scored with the help of Sturm defender Gregory Wüthrich, who made an unfortunate deflection. After the break, the home team’s game was no longer running smoothly, Austria managed the score cleverly and in the end remained without conceding a goal for the fourth game in a row.
At Sturm, Max Johnston and David Schnegg started in the full-back positions, while coach Christian Ilzer trusted Dimitri Lavalée and Tomi Horvat in midfield. Austria had to do without Dominik Fitz, who was ill, and Muharem Huskovic was missing due to knee problems.
As usual, the league leaders started with early, aggressive pressing and forced Austria to make mistakes and defensive actions in their half. But a Prass solo brought in nothing, nor did a shot from Schnegg from the backcourt. Quite different on the other side: With the first attack – a Styrian co-production by Manfred Fischer and Gruber – Austria took the lead. Gruber took a few steps inside from the right outside the penalty area and shot with his left, Wüthrich made a decisive deflection. It was former Sturm player Gruber’s eighth goal of the season.
Graz responded a minute later with a shot from Sarkaria. After a foul by Marvin Martins on the ÖFB team player, he took a penalty in the 32nd minute, but Christian Früchtl in the Violets’ box ruined the chance to equalize. Four minutes later, Sarkaria put the ball just wide of the goal after a Jatta shot. In the 41st minute, Früchtl also defended against Alexander Prass with his foot.
In the 52nd minute, Seedy Jatta shot just wide to the right, but Austria now found more and more rhythm defensively and allowed fewer chances. Martins and Co. were good at the back, Otar Kiteishvili’s ideas were running rampant in the creative center. The Viennese occasionally had counterattacks, but it only became really dangerous at the finish. In the 78th minute, when a Braunöder-Stangl pass found no taker, a murmur went through the Merkur Arena, which was sold out with 15,000 people. In the 84th minute, Fisnik Asllani misused the ball in the penalty area, Hakim Guenouche (93rd) shot at storm goalie Kjell Scherpen.
2023-10-30 06:24:56
#defeat #season #Sturm #Graz #Bundesliga
