2-1! Austria pick up three important points at GAK

Dominik Fitz and Maurice Malone put Austria Wien on the road to victory with their seventh goals of the season, the final goal by Tio Cipot came too late for GAK. Austria closed the gap on leaders Sturm Graz in the ADMIRAL Bundesliga table, who have to face Red Bull Salzburg on Sunday.

Due to Aleksandar Dragović's yellow card suspension, Tin Plavotić took over in the centre of defence. Lucas Galvão started on the left and Johannes Handl at right centre-back. Matteo Pérez Vinlöf was preferred to Hakim Guenouche on the left wing this time, but Stephan Helm's team otherwise remained unchanged. Philipp Wiesinger returned to the matchday squad.

GAK were without a number of regular players due to illness, while Thorsten Schriebl was also missing due to a red card in the previous week's defeat against Austria Klagenfurt. Coach Rene Poms brought five new players into his starting line-up with Jakob Meierhofer in goal, Lukas Graf, debutant Thomas Schiestl, Marco Perchtold and Dominik Fieser.

Barry goal disallowed, 0-0 at the break

Maurice Malone had the first chance of the game, but goalkeeper Meierhofer had little trouble with his shot (6th). The Violets played patiently for the first goal, which came through Abubakr Barry after a beautiful move via Nik Prelec and Malone. However, Malone was a foot offside and the VAR cancelled the goal (16').

GAK had their first opportunity in the 27th minute after a mistake in the build-up, but Marco Perchtold missed. Samuel Şahin-Radlinger also did not have to intervene with a shot from Christian Lichtenberger (34'). The Violets launched an attack down the right flank via Reinhold Ranftl, Malone got a shot on target but fired over (36'). Şahin-Radlinger had to make a good save from Schriebl's shot in the 42nd minute, but the score remained 0-0 at the break.

Fitz and Malone scored the winner for the Violets

At the start of the second half, Lichtenberger blocked a feed from Ranftl with his hand, referee Markus Hameter looked at the scene on the screen and awarded a penalty. Dominik Fitz scored into the right-hand corner. 1-0 for the Violets in the 56th minute.

A short time later, Maurice Malone capitalised on a mistake by Petar Filipovic, ran alone towards Meierhofer and made it 2-0 (62'). Another shot from Malone - just a minute later - went narrowly wide of the goal as Austria had taken the game into their own hands.

Stephan Helm brought on Hakim Guenouche and Andreas Gruber for Pérez Vinlöf and Barry, and Fitz missed the chance to make it 3-0 on the counter-attack after Ranftl's assist (79'). The attacking duo of Prelec and Malone had to call it a day ten minutes before the end, with Marvin Potzmann and Marko Raguž making their appearances. Satin and Frieser had rather harmless finishes for Graz (80‘, 87’).

Moritz Wels for Manfred Fischer was Stephan Helm's last change. In the 91st minute, substitute Tio Cipot scored the equaliser from a corner kick and the game became tense once more. But the Violets left nothing to chance and won 2-1 against GAK.

Grazer AK 1902 - Austria Wien 1-2 (0-0)

GAK: Meierhofer; Graf, Filipovic (84' Revelant), Tikvić (84' Gantschnig); Schiestl, Fofana, Perchtold (68' Kleinheisler), Rosenberger; Lichtenberger (75' Cipot), Frieser, Satin

Austria: Şahin-Radlinger; Handl, Plavotić, Galvão; Ranftl, Fischer (88' Wels), Pérez Vinlöf (68' Guenouche); Fitz, Barry (68' Gruber); Malone (81' Potzmann), Prelec (81' Raguž)

Goals: Cipot (90+1'); Fitz (56' penalty), Malone (62')

Yellow cards: Lichtenberger (19'), Satin (45+2'), Graf (48'), Rosenberger (74'), Kleinheisler (90+2'); Guenouche (73')

Merkur Arena, referee Markus Hameter, 5,233 spectators