1-0 in Wolfsberg - winning streak continues

Austria Wien celebrated a hard-fought 1-0 away win at Wolfsberger AC thanks to a goal from Maurice Malone and an outstanding performance from Samuel Şahin-Radlinger. Aluminium saved the Violets from conceding twice. Austria's fifth Bundesliga win in a row moved them up to second place for the time being.

Stephan Helm made two changes to his starting XI. Abubakr Barry started in place of Philipp Maybach, who played for the Young Violets on Friday. Matteo Pérez Vinlöf was preferred to Hakim Guenouche on the left flank this time.

Dietmar Kühbauer's side had suffered a 1-2 defeat to Austria Klagenfurt the previous week and the Carinthian coach made two changes to his line-up: Angelo Gattermayer and Thomas Sabitzer remained out, Sandro Altunashvili and Sankara Karamoko moved into the first eleven.

Little going on in the first half

The Violets started patiently, with the first chance coming from a Dominik Fitz free-kick. Manfred Fischer headed the ball back towards goal, but it was too central (2'). WAC had a good chance through Sankara Karamoko, but his shot narrowly missed the second bar (10'). Samuel Şahin-Radlinger was on hand to save a shot from Adis Jasic (14').

Austria's build-up play was severely disrupted by the WAC and chances were few and far between at first. It was not until the 37th minute that Manfred Fischer shot at goal again after Fitz had won the ball high up, but Nikolas Polster in the Lavantal goal was able to parry the ball away.

The hosts had a slight advantage in chances, while Austria still had room for improvement in terms of passing. The first half ended goalless.

Şahin-Radlinger held, Malone scored

Samuel Şahin-Radlinger took centre stage at the start of the second half. Long-range shots from Zukić and Altunashvili were superbly saved by our number 1 (53‘, 56’), while Şahin-Radlinger made a superb save to turn Simon Piesinger's shot from point-blank range onto the crossbar (57').

The Violets then came back into the game, with Dominik Fitz failing to beat Polster with a long-range shot (60'). Shortly afterwards, Nik Prelec passed well to Fitz. Fitz outpaced Dominik Baumgartner on the right and ideally served the ball to Maurice Malone - 1-0 for the Violets (61').

Marvin Potzmann and Andreas Gruber came on for Abubakr Barry and Nik Prelec, and a little later Hakim Guenouche replaced Matteo Pérez Vinlöf. WAC had a chance through Thierno Ballo, but the ball went wide (67').

After that, the Austria defence had the Carinthian attack well under control and Stephan Helm made the final changes shortly before the end. Maurice Malone and Dominik Fitz made way for Marko Raguž and Moritz Wels.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Adis Jasic struck the bar with a free-kick - luckily for Austria, who then held on for the win.

Wolfsberger AC - Austria Wien 0-1 (0-0)

WAC: Polster; Baumgartner, Nwaiwu, Wimmer; Jasic, Altunashvili (79. Agyemang), Piesinger, Ullmann; Zukić, Ballo, Karamoko (79. Sabitzer)

Austria: Şahin-Radlinger; Wiesinger, Dragović, Galvão; Ranftl, Fischer, Barry (63. Potzmann), Fitz (86. Wels), Pérez Vinlöf (73. Guenouche); Prelec (63. Gruber), Malone (86. Raguž)

Goal: Malone (61.)

Yellow cards: Barry (46.), Galvão (55.), Fischer (87.)

Lavanttal-Arena, referee Christopher Jäger, 3,376 spectators