Efficient violets

LASK against Austria Vienna LIVE from 5pm

Collective jubilation among the Austria players

(Bild: GEPA)

Vienna's Austria remain on the road to success in the Bundesliga! Coach Stephan Helm's team won 3:1 (1:0) at LASK on Sunday with merciless efficiency.

Manfred Fischer (20th), Abubakr Barry (48th) and Maurice Malone (78th) scored for the visitors, a goal from Florian Flecker (72nd) was not enough for Linz. With their seventh league win in a row, the Veilchen are second, three points behind Sturm Graz. LASK are sixth, just outside the top half of the table.

The most obvious change for Linz was the change in the goalkeeper position. The 20-year-old Lukas Jungwirth replaced veteran Jörg Siebenhandl, who was sent off with a red card in the European Cup during the week, in the absence of one-goalkeeper Tobias Lawal, who is not yet fit again (thigh injury).

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Branko Jovicic, Sascha Horvath and Maximilian Entrup also returned to the starting eleven. Andreas Gruber was allowed to start for Austria in place of Dominik Fitz, who was suspended.

Austria take the lead through Fischer
There were delays right at the start due to massive billows of Bengalo smoke. There was also no clear picture of the balance of power on the pitch at first: Coach Markus Schopp's team had more possession, while the Viennese concentrated on switching play. The latter was successful after 20 minutes: With the first noteworthy chance of the game, captain Fischer put the visitors ahead from a good 20 meters via the inside of the bar.

After that, the game remained slow and lacked goalmouth action. It was only shortly before the break that the hosts pushed for an equalizer. Valon Berisha tested Samuel Sahin-Radlinger from distance, but he was on the ball (41'). In six minutes of stoppage time, an Entrup header went over the goal.

The second half began with another goal for the visitors - followed by another "fog" interruption. Barry first increased the lead to 2:0 with a volley after a tailor-made Ranftl cross - his first Bundesliga goal. Referee Christian-Petru Ciochirca then had to suspend the match for almost ten minutes due to pyrotechnics being set off by both sets of fans.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

(Bild: GEPA)

Eventful final phase
After the restart, Jungwirth saved at the last moment from Maurice Malone (62') and prevented the final decision. LASK then tried to get back into the game, which was finally achieved by substitute Flecker. The joker finished off a long ball from Berisha with a left-footed finish (72'). However, the Upper Austrians' comeback came to an abrupt end. After fine preparatory work by Barry, who combined with Ranftl in a one-two pass through the LASK defense and served Malone in an exemplary manner, the striker scored the 3:1.

Entrup missed the connection again with a shot (87'), while Hakim Guenouche missed the 4:1 at the other end (89'). Nik Prelec missed another top chance in the 13 minutes of stoppage time (98'), while Filip Stojkovic was shown a straight red card for a challenge on ex-LASK player Marko Raguz (98'). Raguz finally failed to beat the Linz keeper alone in front of Jungwirth (104').

(Bild: GEPA)

(Bild: GEPA)

LASK's last league game before the winter break now awaits them in Wolfsberg at WAC next Saturday (5pm). Austria will host bottom club Altach in their last competitive game of 2024 next Sunday (5pm).

The result:
LASK - FK Austria Wien 1:3 (0:1)
Linz, Raiffeisen Arena, 10,500 spectators, referee Ciochirca

Goals: 0:1 (20.) Fischer, 0:2 (48.) Barry, 1:2 (72.) Flecker, 1:3 (78.) Malone

Yellow cards: Bogarde and Prelec

Red card: Stojkovic (98.)

LASK: Jungwirth - Stojkovic, Ziereis, Smolcic (83. Tavares), Bello - B. Jovicic (58. Flecker), Bogarde - Horvath (58. Ljubicic), Zulj, Berisha (91. Taoui) - Entrup
Austria Wien: Sahin-Radlinger - Wiesinger, Dragovic (69. Handl), Plavotic - Ranftl, Barry, Fischer (88. Wustinger), Perez Vinlöf (69. Guenouche) - Gruber (76. Potzmann), Prelec, Malone (88. Raguz)