Second League

Championship title within GAK’s grasp after 3-0 win

GAK celebrate a 3:0 away win.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Promotion to the Bundesliga is now within reach for GAK. The Styrian side showed no signs of slowing down on Saturday with a 3-0 away win at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz and are now eleven points ahead of rivals SV Ried after the 25th round of the 2nd division. 15 points are still up for grabs in the remaining five games. The Athletiker's return to the top flight could therefore become a reality as early as next week.

GAK will face Admira on Friday. A win and a loss of points by Ried at Vienna on Sunday would mean that first place in the season finale could no longer be taken away from the superior league leaders. Thorsten Schriebl (31) and Daniel Maderner (44) opened the scoring at the ImmoAgentur Stadion before the break. Martin Murg (89), who had come on as a substitute shortly beforehand, scored the final goal late on. After the 3:1 win against St. Pölten, Graz were on top for the second time in a row.

Fourth-placed FAC won 1-0 at home against Vienna thanks to a goal from Flavio (53'). Fifth-placed Admira are two points behind them, as the Lower Austrians were held to a goalless draw by FC Liefering in Südstadt. Captain Stephan Zwierschitz did not feature for the hosts. The 33-year-old Lower Austrian now only has five more opportunities to prove himself in the second-highest division, especially as he announced during the week that he would end his professional career at the end of the season due to injury.

In the relegation battle, penultimate-placed Sturm Graz II lost 3-2 to FC Dornbirn despite holding a 2-0 lead, meaning the Vorarlberg side are already six points adrift of the drop zone and have at least managed to reduce the gap to the non-relegation zone to one point by Sunday.