Red for Standfest

LIVE from 5pm: SCR Altach face Austria Vienna

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Vienna's Austria squandered a perfect start to the qualifying group of the Bundesliga at SCR Altach in the last minute. The "Veilchen" conceded the equalizer in the 95th minute through "Joker" Lukas Gugganig to make it 1:1 (1:0) in the Ländle on Saturday and thus remain one point ahead of Wolfsberger AC in the bottom half of the league. In front of 4,079 spectators, Dominik Fitz had given Michael Wimmer's team the lead in the ninth minute.

However, a final offensive by Altach coach Joachim Standfest, who was shown a red card in the final minute for criticizing the referee, saved the Vorarlberg side a point against the favourites from Vienna. Altach remain ninth in the fight against relegation, four points ahead of bottom-of-the-table Austria Lustenau, while Austria are still in pole position for the European Cup play-off after the first of ten rounds.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Wimmer, whose team only narrowly missed out on the Champions Group, relied on his usual starting eleven. Only Matteo Meisl replaced the suspended Lucas Galvao in the Purple & White back three. For Altachern, Jan Jurcec was on the pitch for the suspended Mike Bähre. It took just 36 seconds for Altach striker Gustavo Santos to turn to celebrate the goal, but referee Markus Hameter whistled for a minimal offside. After a two-minute VAR check, the decision was confirmed.

Austria start strongly
A short time later, the same scenario occurred at the other end: After a nice combination via Andreas Gruber and Romeo Vucic, Fitz was lucky to beat Altach goalkeeper Dejan Stojanovic and finish into the near corner. The whistle blew again, but Fitz was clearly not offside, which is why the goal was awarded after VAR intervention. The Violets took control with longer periods of possession, but Gruber shot wide from the edge of the box (16').

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

The Rheindörfler slowly got into the game, but for a long time it was not at a high level. Austria goalkeeper Christian Früchtl's heart rate rose considerably for the first time in the 28th minute following a Ranftl back pass with his chest. There were few big chances for either side. Santos failed to get a header on target (40') and Altach defender Constantin Reiner cleared a Plavotic header just off the line (45').

After the break, it took a quarter of an hour before Santos failed to beat Früchtl with a good chance from an acute angle (61'). Shortly beforehand, Standfest had changed his system and introduced an attacking outlet in the form of goal scorer Atdhe Nuhiu. However, this did not really create any more goal threat. In the 79th minute, Santos once again failed to beat Früchtl and the situation became dangerous again as Meisl crashed into his team-mate. The Altach goalscorer went down, but the penalty was not awarded.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Last-minute goal
In stoppage time, Früchtl defused another Santos shot, while Muharem Huskovic failed to beat Stojanovic on the counter-attack (93'). The Standfest team pressed for an equalizer and were lucky to score. After a scramble in the Austria penalty area following a free-kick, Sofian Bahloul flicked the ball to the free-standing Gugganig, who scored into an empty net from close range.

SCR Altach - FK Austria Vienna 1:1 (0:1)
Altach, Cashpoint-Arena 
4,079 spectators, referee Hameter

Goals: 0:1 (9.) Fitz 1:1 (95.) L. Gugganig

Altach: Stojanovic - Ingolitsch (59. L. Gugganig), Reiner, Koller, Ouedraogo - Demaku, Jäger (68. Bahloul), Fadinger - Gebauer, Santos, Jurcec (59. Nuhiu)

Austria: Früchtl - Handl, Plavotic, Meisl - Ranftl, Fischer, Krätzig, Guenouche (66. Wels) - Gruber (66. Huskovic), Fitz (91. Holland), Vucic (83. Schmidt)

Yellow cards: Koller, Demaku, Gebauer, Gugganig, Nuhiu or Fischer, Ranftl

Red card: Standfest (Altach coach, after the end of the match)