ADMIRAL Bundesliga Matchday 18 Reviews

FC Red Bull Salzburg 5-0 WSG Tirol

Substitute Karim Adeyemi scored a hat-trick as runaways league leaders Red Bull Salzburg rounded off a sensational week in which they qualified for the Champions League knockout stages for the first time by thrashing WSG Tirol 5-0. Nicolás Capaldo opened the scoring for a much-changed Salzburg side in the first half when he rounded off a sweeping team move. Adeyemi then notched his first treble in the Austrian Bundesliga to take his goal tally for the season to 14, before unselfishly teeing up Noah Okafor to complete the scoring from close range. The Red Bulls now head into the winter break with a 14-point lead, meaning that they will top the standings when the league splits in half in March whatever happens in the final four games of the regular season. WSG Tirol’s second defeat on the bounce sees them drop down to 10^th place, with a five-point gap to make up if they are to repeat last season’s achievement of qualifying for the Championship Round.  

SV Guntamatic Ried 2-1 CASHPOINT SCR Altach

Ried’s new permanent manager Robert Ibertsberger, who will take over the reins at the Upper Austrian outfit on 1 January, watched on from the sidelines as his future charges claimed a last-ditch victory over Altach, who have only 13 points and 10 goals to their name and will be spending a second consecutive Christmas at the foot of the table. The result also means that Christian Heinle will end his spell as interim boss with Ried in the top six, three points clear of seventh place. Seifedin Chabbi opened the scoring with a well-timed run and calm finish around the quarter-hour mark, but the Vorarlbergers hit back through David Bumberger early in the second period to bring their 512-minute scoring drought to an end. It was Ried who had the last laugh, however, when Ante Bajic popped up in stoppage time and beat Tino Casali, who had previously made a string of impressive saves in the Altach goal, to send the fans at the Josko Arena into raptures.

TSV Egger Glas Hartberg 2-2 RZ Pellets WAC

Mario Sonnleitner’s first league goal in the blue of Hartberg rescued a valuable point for the Styrian outfit deep into stoppage time and denied Wolfsberg an eighth Bundesliga win in nine matches. The visitors from Carinthia raced into a two-goal lead inside the opening 20 minutes as strikes from Tai Baribo and Dario Vizinger put them in a commanding position, but the hosts halved the deficit before the break when Donis Avdijaj fired home beautifully from 27 metres. It was Hartberg’s seven goal of the season from long range – a joint league high shared with Red Bull Salzburg. Robin Dutt’s men had a number of opportunities to put the game to bed after the break but couldn’t take them, and they were made to pay when Sonnleitner’s glancing header nestled in the back of the net following a corner at the death. The draw cost Wolfsberg second spot heading into the winter break – they are level with Sturm on 31 points but have the inferior head-to-head record – while Hartberg sit in eighth place, just one win away from a top six berth.

FC Flyeralarm Admira 1-2 SK Rapid Wien

Ferdinand Feldhofer’s unbeaten start in the Rapid Vienna dugout continued as the Green & Whites claimed a 2-1 victory over Admira – their fifth consecutive Bundesliga away win against the Lower Austrian outfit. The three points keep Rapid up in fifth place, while Admira head into the break second from bottom with only a three-point cushion over relegations rivals Altach. The visitors went in front around the quarter-hour mark when Taxi Fountas ran through a crowd of defenders before slotting the ball calmly in the bottom corner of the goal. The lead did not last long though, with a looping Stephan Zwierschitz header from a Roman Kerschbaum free-kick restoring parity only four minutes later. Chances followed at both ends, before Ercan Kara headed home a Fountas cross from the left flank to put the capital club in the driving seat heading into the closing stages. Kelvin Arase could have wrapped up the victory later on when he went clean through on goal, but stumbled and ultimately lost the one-on-one battle with Admira shot-stopper Andreas Leitner.

SK Austria Klagenfurt 0-3 SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz

Austria Klagenfurt lost a home game for the first time all season as a Sturm Graz side fresh from a well-deserved Europa League point against Monaco in midweek ran out 3-0 winners at the Wörthersee Stadion. Kelvin Yeboah, whose earlier goal in the first minute had been ruled out for offside, eventually broke the deadlock 24 minutes into the match with a tidy left-footed finish into the bottom corner. The Italy U21 international then chested the ball into the path of team-mate Jakob Jantscher for the second goal, before heading home Manprit Sarkaria’s corner-kick to seal the victory and ensure his side would end the regular season in second place. Despite the slip-up, the promoted Carinthian outfit remain firmly on course for a place in the Championship Round, with four points separating them from seventh spot.

FK Austria Wien 2-3 LASK

Austria Vienna’s hopes of a place in the Championship Round for the first time in three years took a hammer blow as they conceded three goals for the first time in two and a half months in a 3-2 loss to struggling LASK, who needed the three points themselves to keep their own faint top-six hopes alive. This game got off to a frenetic start, with Georg Teigl firing the Violets into the lead in the opening minute with the fastest Bundesliga goal in more than six years, only for strikes from Sascha Horvath (penalty) and Husein Balic to turn the game on its head by the 25-minute mark. Aleksandar Jukic levelled the scores on the half-hour with a thumping effort into the top corner, but LASK hit back through Lukas Grgic with 15 minutes to go to seal the points in this battle of the Championship Round chasers. Austria Vienna still have a slender advantage over their Upper Austrian opponents though: they are in seventh on 21 points, with LASK two places and a point behind.