With Red Bull Salzburg (45 points) and Sturm (34), champions and runners-up have already been decided three rounds before the end of the season. Behind it, however, it remains exciting in the fight for the European Cup places. Rapid (24) is currently in the coveted third place, which means a fixed place in a European group stage in autumn and at least three million euros. Behind them in the table are Austria Vienna (22), ahead of WAC (22) and Austria Klagenfurt (20) with the same number of points.
It is questionable whether Rapid or archrival Austria can change the situation in the derby. There are already six games in total in which neither team was able to walk away as a winner. The previous three season duels each ended 1:1. At Rapid, however, they absolutely want to achieve full success this time. “It doesn’t matter how – if we get three points, we can be satisfied,” said coach Ferdinand Feldhofer beforehand. In this case, final third place would almost be fixed, emphasized the Styrian, who has to replace injured striker Ferdy Druijf and suspended goalkeeper Niklas Hedl.
But Austria also has personnel worries: Eric Martel is suspended, Matthias Braunöder is injured. Striker Marco Djuricin could return to the starting line-up. Nevertheless, Austria wants to end its current negative series of six rounds without a win and hopes for a full backdrop. “What better time than to start winning again in the derby?” asked Manfred Schmid. The Austria coach expects great emotions. He doesn’t feel any pressure due to the situation in the table. “We have a huge starting position, now it depends on us what we make of it,” said Schmid.
The WAC wants to kidnap valuable points in the exciting race for the European Cup starting places from series champion Salzburg. WAC trainer Robin Dutt wanted to take something countable against “every opponent, no matter against whom”, said the German before the duel in Wals-Siezenheim. For Salzburg, there are still two records at stake in the championship finish. With three trebles they could equal the Bundesliga win record of Wiener Austria (26) from the 1985/86 season and also break the point record (52) since the Bundesliga reform four years ago. That’s why coach Matthias Jaissle assured the full commitment of his players: “The goals remain the same and the demands remain the same. Of course we want to win again here in front of our own crowd on Sunday.”
Sturm Graz also doesn’t want to let up after fixing the runner-up position. “We’re not playing the last three games for honor – anyone who believes that doesn’t know me and doesn’t know my team,” emphasized coach Christian Ilzer before the game in Klagenfurt . Three points should come, like six times in the last seven games. For the people from Klagenfurt, the high level of motivation is self-evident, even third place is not completely out of reach with a four-point deficit. “It’s up to us if we want to get an international starting place. We have to score to stay there,” said coach Peter Pacult.
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