2: 1, 2: 0, 3: 3 – the favorites had more to laugh about this season against Rapid. At the most recent appearance in the west of Vienna, the guests mourned a victory. Ten attempts since September 1, 2019 – a 3-1 win at Austria – Rapid in Derbys have already been unsuccessful. The games ended in a draw eight times. In the 340th duel on Sunday, a complete success would help the home side in particular.
“If I tell the team we don’t want to lose, it would be wrong. We can read the table,” said Austria coach Michael Wimmer, two points behind Rapid. In the event of a tie, the Hütteldorfer would be ranked first due to the rounding off in the division of points. Wimmer expected “an opponent who also wants to win, who is snappy and greedy”.
Rapid coach Zoran Barisic confirmed Wimmer’s thesis. “Going for a draw is not our philosophy and it’s not the way we want to play football. We will attack there and want to take three points,” said the Viennese.
Austria must discard “certain niceness”.
Since the 2-0 victory in the last home derby, Austria has been waiting for a sense of achievement. In the master group, the fifth has not yet written a threesome, Austria from Klagenfurt, who has the same number of points, is breathing down their necks. A positive result was also prevented by 15 goals conceded in six rounds. Wimmer demanded concentration: “We have to discard a certain kindness and be more robust in the duels.”
Sports director Manuel Ortlechner gave another explanation that Austria is not doing the same as last year when they finished third: “The level of the master group is different than last year. You can’t compare that.” Austria is expecting a full house with more than 15,000 spectators, including 1,600 fans in the guest sector.
In the 1-2 draw against Sturm Graz, the Austrians slept through the first half of the game. According to Ortlechner, they now want to be “there from the start”. Wimmer recalled the appearance at 2-0 in the last round of the regular season. “We were there from the start.”
Personal question marks
Personally, there are question marks with the violets. Andreas Gruber has been suffering from an ankle ligament injury since the Sturm game and only started training on Friday. “We have to see if it’s enough on Sunday,” said Wimmer. Matthias Braunöder and Georg Teigl (both gastrointestinal infections) had to take a break on Friday due to illness. Braunöder also had a fever. A candidate for the starting XI is meanwhile Doron Leidner.
Master Group, 29th round
Sunday, 5 p.m.:
Austria – Rapid
Wien, Generali Arena, SR Harkam
Possible lineups:
Austria: Früchtl – Mühl, Martins, Meisl – Ranftl, Holland, Fischer, Leidner – Fitz – Dovedan, Tabakovic
Rapid: Hedl – Schick, Sollbauer, K. Wimmer, Auer – Kerschbaum, M. Oswald – Kühn, Greil, Grüll – Burgstaller
According to Barisic, Rapid is also struggling with some battered players. Among other things, the use of Aleksa Pejic is questionable, otherwise Barisic did not name any names in this context. The 54-year-old was optimistic. “It’s all in there. We’re going into the game with confidence.” After the recent failures, a win would be a great relief, but it doesn’t mean fourth place. “If we win, that’s not a preliminary decision,” stressed Barisic.
Rapid longs for derby victory
His team’s record from the last five competition games is three defeats and two draws – but Barisic still has a high opinion of his professionals. “If everyone uses 100 percent of their potential, there is an incredible amount in it. I hope the players believe in themselves at least as much as I believe in them. That would take them a step or two further.”
Despite the praise for the squad, Rapid is likely to face another major staff reshuffle in the summer. This could mean that the criteria of the Austrian pot are no longer met, with managing director Steffen Hofmann reassuring: “We leave that open from transfer period to transfer period. It can happen that we have seven or eight foreigners in the squad. But our main focus will be on pushing our own players.”