Austria Wien wins 3-0 against Zenit St. Petersburg

35,619 fans filled the Gazprom Arena, creating a wonderful atmosphere and the players thanked them with goals, tricks and many offensive actions. The roof was closed during the game and thus it had a pleasant 15 degrees instead of 4 degrees – the state-of-the-art arena is a gem worth seeing in the city on the Baltic Sea.

But not only the stadium and the interest in the friendly match were much larger than in Austria. According to Transfermarkt.at, Zenit has a total squad value of € 166.3 million (seven players have a market value of at least 11 million), while Austria Wien has a total of € 23.8 million. But during the game that wasn’t so obvious.

The replacement weakened 'Violets', who arrived in Russia on Friday and will fly back to Vienna on Sunday morning, played in a 3-4-3 system again. By the way, the usual huge exchange of players during the break of a friendly match did not happen as Robert Ibertsberger only had 15 fit players available.

The flow of the game did not suffer underneath it though. The leader of the Russian Premier League also had international matches or injury-related losses, but absolutely wanted to lead the game. Which only succeeded at first.

But while the Russians did not really have any clear chance to score, the ‘Violets’ made their game in the opposing half more and more as the game continued and crowned the successful performance with the opening goal.

And it was worth seeing: a free-kick by Prokop from the side into the box, the defence by head was taken over by Klein from 18 meters, and he sank the ball into the corner similar to the one during the December derby (34^th). Only moments later, Salamon narrowly missed the top corner.

It started to get really good immediately after the break, when Matic made the 2-0 with a great scoop into the far corner (49^th) and shortly after Jeggo, Monschein, Sarkaria, Edomwonyi and Yateke each had top chances on the third goal.

It started to get really good immediately after the break, when Matic made the 2-0 with a great scoop into the far corner (49^th) and shortly after Jeggo, Monschein, Sarkaria, Edomwonyi and Yateke each had top chances on the third goal.

‘Violets’, that was strong! Both combative and the technical.

Coach Robert Ibertsberger, "We took the game very serious, we were aware that this would be a good test before the opening match against Salzburg next Sunday, and there were phases where we were b able to make our game very well, in others we allowed too much, we have to continue the same way, we are on a good path."

Austria Wien played with: Lucic; Klein, Schoissengeyr, Igor (78^th, Ewandro); Cuevas, Jeggo, Matic, Salamon (46^th, Sarcaria); Monschein, Edomwonyi (68^th, Yateke), Prokop.

Zenit St. Petersburg: Kherzhakov (46^th, Gorodovoy); Anyukov (62^nd, Smolnikov), Neto, Rakitskiy (46^th, Scrobotov), Nabiullin; Kranevitter (72^nd, Kaplenko); Rigoni, Hernani, Driussi (62^nd, Vorobyev), Shatov; Zabolotnyi (72^nd, Mostovoy).

Goals: Klein (34^th), Matic (49^th), Ewandro (87^th).

Missing for the Violets: Madl (adductor problems), Alexander Grünwald (trained in Vienna), Alon Turgeman (thigh problems), Christoph Martschinko, Thomas Ebner (both adductor problems), Max Sax (sick), Patrick Pentz, Alexandar Borkovic, Petar Gluhakovic, Vesel Demaku, Dominik Fitz, Niels Hahn (all ÖFB national team).

Lieber Austria-Fan,
der Inhalt des heutigen Austria Wien-Newsletters

» Tickets für alle Meistergruppen-Heimspiele erhältlich
» Matic und Co. wollen Aufwärtstrend in Salzburg zeigen
» Viola TV & Viola Podcast: Markus Kraetschmer im Gespräch
» Austria und IMBA für CSR-Kampagne geehrt
» Die nächsten Spiele & Termine der Veilchen

Bundesliga:
23. Runde, 31.03.2019, 17:00 Uhr, FC Red Bull Salzburg - FK Austria Wien (Alle Infos >>)
24. Runde, 07.04.2019, 14:30 Uhr, FK Austria Wien - SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz (Alle Infos >>)
25. Runde, 14.04.2019, 14:30 Uhr, RZ Pellets WAC - FK Austria Wien (Alle Infos >>)

2. Liga
20. Runde, 29.03.2019, 19:10 Uhr, SV Licht-Loidl Lafnitz - Young Violets Austria Wien
21. Runde, 05.04.2019, 19:10 Uhr, Young Violets Austria Wien - SK Austria Klagenfurt
22. Runde, 12.04.2019, 19:10 Uhr, FC Pasching - Young Violets Austria Wien