LASK easily won the League title against Rapid 2-1 and remains the leader in the standings. Hütteldorfer spoiled the European Cup qualifying rehearsal in Vaduz. But: Ferdinand Feldhofer has now taken on the role of favourite.
Dietmar Koebauer tasted the winning beer as a special bonus after his blow win over his former club. “I sat upstairs in my training room and drank Zipfer beer. It’s very rare for me, but today it was necessary,” said the beaming LASK coach after the 2-1 Sovereigns in the first game. German Football League Reverse fast. sky-expert Hans Krankl He joked, “He must have cried with joy. He deserved the beer.”
But the tears did not flow on Sunday evening, Kohbauer explained. “It’s not that I cry comfortably at home. I had a good time at Rapid,” the 51-year-old said. Not everything went smoothly at Hütteldorf, but he wouldn’t say any negative things about his former club now. Instead, Kohbauer “slept as well” before the league game as he had before any other game.
Kohbauer emphasized again: “It will never end that I will be a Rapidler. I have said it now 117,000 times that I will invest everything in the same way for the club I work for.” This investment appears to be paying off in Linz. LASK has scored at least once in all nine games under Kühbauer and is still top of the table after four rounds with ten points – three points ahead of Rapid.
“A deserved victory. It was a very good match from us, especially in the first half,” Kohbauer said of his team’s performance against the feared opponents from Vienna. For the first time in nine matches, Linz scored a hat-trick against Grün-Weiss, thanks to goals by Thomas Guijinger (10) and Keito Nakamura (43). The coach provided insight: “We’ve changed that statistic now, so the lead in the table isn’t even the biggest problem.”
It was only natural that Kohbauer did not celebrate on the field with the fans and the team after the match. “I’ve never done that in my whole life,” he explained. “The players did a great job and they deserve it. I’m really happy in my room.” It is more important how LASK performs and not “whether I jump there”.
On Saturday we go to Graz to see runner-up Sturm. Kohbauer didn’t want to let go of a potential rapture in the first place. “We started now, but no more. The team can play football very well.” But in Rapid, the disappointment after the first defeat in the league was clearly palpable. “LASK was a little better in all respects,” said Marco Grol, the Rapids substitute captain, who scored the goal 1:2 in the 93rd minute. Goal scorer Guido Burgstaler analyzed: “We were not good, we deserved the defeat.”
Coach Ferdinand Feldhofer His eleven teams rotated through eight positions after a 120-minute European Cup turn against Neftchi Baku three days ago. “I didn’t want to switch eight players, that wasn’t the plan,” said the coach, who had to part with sick players like Patrick Grill and Maximilian Hoffmann for a while. But Feldhofer did not want to risk “injuring very sick or tired players who might be out in the fall. I wouldn’t do that.”
Kohbauer was “surprised” by Rapid’s squad, “because they had already set up defensively,” he said, “we had to find solutions and we found them.” Hütteldorfer was very different, acting, as is often the case, without ideas in the second half in the final third. Feldhofer admitted, “We wanted to change the course of the match, but we weren’t able to create any very dangerous chances.” In the first half, the basics such as fencing behavior, distances and second balls will not fit.
That should change by Thursday (8pm) at the latest, when Rapid hosts FC Vaduz in the first leg of the Conference League qualifiers. “If you hear the names, we are the favourites. We are happy to accept that again,” Wildhofer said before facing the penultimate team in the Swiss second division. Burgstaler remained positive after the defeat to LASK: “We can’t think about it for too long, that’s the good thing.”
