A painful defeat against Sturm

The Violets suffered a bitter 2-5 home defeat against champions Sturm Graz. Austria took the lead after just a few seconds thanks to a lightning-fast goal from Matteo Schablas, but conceded an equaliser almost immediately; shortly before half-time, Kiteishvili scored to put them back in front. After the break, it was one thing after another: Austria conceded the 1-3 whilst a man down and subsequently lost their way. A night to forget.

To mark their 115th anniversary, the Violets faced reigning champions SK Sturm Graz on Sunday afternoon. Compared to the 2–0 away win at SV Ried, Matteo Schablas replaced the suspended Taeseok Lee on the left wing in a 3–4–2–1 formation. For the 20-year-old, it was his first start in the Bundesliga.  

Lightning start, lightning response

The opening phase was a real cracker: a throw-in from Sturm turned into a boomerang; Reini Ranftl – coming in from the right as expected – spotted Abu Barry, who set up Matteo Schablas with a sweet backheel. Barely 40 seconds had been played when the debutant turned towards the East Stand, celebrating. Pure kitsch. The Graz side remained unfazed and reacted promptly: Stanković played the ball in, Kiteishvili spotted Jatta, Şahin-Radlinger could only parry it forward, and Rózga was in the right place at the right time to slot home the equaliser (6').

Violets miss chances

The tempo remained incredibly high. Both teams were fired up, pressing relentlessly, drawn magnetically towards the opposition’s goal. The Violets’ dominance grew steadily as the first half progressed – a brief round-up of the home side’s chances: Eggestein was a split-second too late to meet Fischer’s cross (7’), a Plavotić header was deflected for a corner (12’), and Eggestein was narrowly offside as he looked set to put his side back in front (20’). After the Violets had previously combined impressively in the penalty area, Mitchell cleared a Barry shot (24'). Albert Vallci threw himself in front of a shot from Barry, who had just slipped the ball past the wayward Bignetti (29'). In the closing stages of the first half, Matteo Schablas then had a Bollywood-style turn on his instep, but failed to beat the Sturm goalkeeper after a Barry pass (38th minute), whilst Eggestein tried his luck from a turn (41'). Shortly before half-time, Sturm completely turned the course of what had been a crazy game up to that point on its head: Tin Plavotić was too hesitant in challenging Jatta, and Otar Kiteishvili slotted the ball past Şahin-Radlinger to take the lead (45+1').

A disastrous second half

The second half was, at least for the 13,800-plus fans in violet in the stadium, to put it mildly: dreadful. Following an on-field review, Walter Altmann pointed to the penalty spot, from where Kiteishvili beat Şahin-Radlinger, 1–3 (55'). The whistle had been preceded by a foul from Tin Plavotić, who picked up a second yellow card and, like Abu Barry (5th yellow), will miss next weekend’s match against Hartberg. Shortly afterwards, things went from bad to worse: Wiesinger played an unintentional one-two with Fosso, who slotted home to make it 1-4 (60'). And it got even worse: following a Styrian counter-attack, substitute Mamageishvili was denied by Sahin-Radlinger, but Dragovic deflected the ball into his own net whilst attempting to clear (67').  

A bitter evening

With a quarter of an hour to go, the game settled down again. After a hard challenge on Eggestein, Altmann brandished a straight red card at Paul Koller following a VAR intervention (76'). The Violets rallied and showed spirit: First, Bignetti made a superb save to tip Barry’s outside-of-the-foot strike round the post for a corner (80'), then captain Mandi Fischer took heart from 20 metres out and made it 2-5 (82'), which was also the final score. A thoroughly disappointing evening for Austria, who now sit fifth in the table after 23 rounds and face Hartberg next week.

Austria Wien – Sturm Graz 2–5 (1–2)

Austria: Şahin-Radlinger; Wiesinger, Dragović, Plavotić; Ranftl, Maybach (62. Handl), Kang Hee Lee (62. Marković), Schablas (81. Österreicher); Fischer, Barry (81. Mörth), Eggestein (88. Kanté)

Sturm: Bignetti; Mitchell, Koller, Vallci; Stanković ©, Rózga (64. Mamageshvili), Fosso (88. Weinhandl), Karic; Kiteishvili (72. Malone), Hödl (72. Malić); Jatta (64. Beganović)

Goals: Schablas (1'), Fischer (84'); Rózga (6'), Kiteishvili (45+1', 56'/pen.), Fosso (60'), Dragovic (67'/own goal)

Yellow-red: Plavotić (55./Austria)

Red: Koller (76./Sturm)

Generali Arena, referee Walter Altmann, 13,848 spectators