2 winners despite draw

Austria Klagenfurt against Rapid from 5pm LIVE

Austria Klagenfurt and Rapid are both in the championship group.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

The duel between Austria Klagenfurt and Rapid resulted in a draw with two winners on Sunday. The 1-1 draw in the final round of the basic round saw both teams advance to the Champions Group of the Bundesliga. Christoph Lang gave Hütteldorfer the lead (39'), but after Christopher Wernitznig made it 1-1 (73') there was nothing but shuffling of the ball, which is likely to cause some discussion.

Little or nothing happened in the first 20 minutes in the Arena am Wörthersee. The ball was mostly in the middle third of the pitch and there were no shots. But then the picture changed and Klagenfurt became dangerous three times in the space of a few minutes.

Solomon Bonnah brought the ball down the middle, Nicolas Binder hit Niklas Hedl from close range and the ball bounced off the Rapid goalkeeper onto the crossbar and back into the box (21'). The goalkeeper also had to summon all his skill to deal with a failed chest return from Jonas Auer (29') and also saved a header from Nicolas Wimmer (30').

Hedl had only been cleared to play in the Klagenfurt match on Friday after the protest committee reduced his ban following the scandal in the Vienna derby. The 22-year-old kept his team in the game and Rapid were extremely efficient in attack. Mayulu was allowed to waltz through the Klagenfurt defense unchallenged and set up Lang perfectly, who only had to finish into the empty goal.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Burgstaller and Grüll suspended
In the second half, the heavily depleted visitors - who were missing the suspended Guido Burgstaller and Marco Grüll, among others - initially kept the game open, but after around an hour, the Carinthians started to pick up the pace again. And once again Peter Pacult's team lacked luck, with a header from Jonas Arweiler hitting the bar (68').

Five minutes later, the home side's efforts were rewarded after all: Rapid allowed themselves to be countered and Wernitznig, who had just come on as a substitute, beat Hedl. It was initially ruled offside, but after a VAR review the goal counted. After that, neither club took any more risks. The 8,500 spectators did not see a single chance to score.