Rapids' defensive battle
Hellish ride in the “quarry”, but chance lives on
Outnumbered for 90 minutes after Beljo's gaffe - but Rapid "only" lost the first leg of the Europa League play-off in Braga 2-1. Burgstaller scored a historic goal.
Beljo sprinted into a sloppy Bambu back pass, stormed towards the famous stadium rock face, curved around goalkeeper Matheus, but put the ball too far forward with his left and landed in the outer net with the ball. With just 49 seconds played, it was a slapstick move ...
But it can always be worse. For Rapid in Braga even after two minutes: Grgic fouled Zalazar, the VAR intervened, so it was yellow-red (4th).
Nightmare start for Rapid
Instead of leading 1-0, they were suddenly down to ten men - even the green-and-whites have probably never experienced a worse nightmare start than in the Europa League play-off first leg in their long European Cup history. Coach Klauß reacted immediately, bringing on a second six-man in Oswald for unlucky Beljo (8th).
Apart from that, Rapid stuck to their offensive plan and were aggressive in the tackles. When Braga's goalkeeper Matheus almost lost a dribble against Burgstaller, it was clear that the Portuguese team of millions is not stable. And Rapids' courage to continue playing soccer when outnumbered was rewarded when Burgstaller got his foot to a perfect through pass from Seidl - 1:0 (25').
Historic, Rapids' first ever goal on the Iberian peninsula. But of course Braga then dominated: Zalazar twice and El Ouzzani on the volley knocked in loudly, Carvalho equalized with a header after a corner - 1:1 (33'). But it was impressive to see how the ten Viennese players stood up to the attacks, throwing themselves into shots and duels. There were hardly any periods of respite or even relief, although Jansson and Co. gave their all.
Defensive battle after the break
After the break, goalkeeper Hedl had his hands full and it was a defensive battle. Rapid also pulled off a stroke of offensive genius when Burgstaller scored on the volley - unfortunately from an offside position (59').
It was a hell of a ride in the Braga quarry, which was ultimately decided by Zalazar with a shot into the far corner - 1:2 (71'). Rapid managed to survive. Although it was the first defeat of the season for the green-and-white team, it was "only" 1:2 at the clearly favored Portuguese side despite being outnumbered for 90 minutes. This means that the chance of making it into the Europa League is still alive for the second leg in Vienna. Then hopefully eleven against eleven ...
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