2nd league - 18th round

Vienna wins ++ Admira drops points!

Successful end to February for Vienna - with a 3-1 home win against Stripfing ...

(Bild: GEPA)

League leaders Admira Wacker have suffered a minor setback in the 2nd division promotion race! The Lower Austrians were held to a 1-1 draw at newly-promoted SV Lafnitz on Friday and are now just one point ahead of SV Ried. Ried landed their sixth win in a row with a 2-0 win against FAC. Third-placed Vienna defeated Stripfing 3-1, while SV Horn showed signs of life in the relegation battle with a 2-1 win against Voitsberg.

Admira dropped points for only the second time in the last seven rounds - as they did in Horn (0-0) against a straggler. Andreas Radic headed Lafnitz into the lead against the run of play (43'). The favored Südstädter, who had defeated Vienna 3:1 in the spring opener last week, only managed to equalize with a penalty from Deni Alar (66'). It was the former international's tenth league goal of the season. Albin Gashi had previously gone down in the penalty area after a solo run.

Ried got off to a lightning start in their own stadium. Wilfried Eza converted a cross from Fabian Wohlmuth after just 15 seconds to make it 1:0. Ante Bajic increased the lead shortly before the break after he was somewhat fortunate to get the ball in the penalty area (40'). Ried had the game under control and could have scored more goals, but were denied several times by FAC goalkeeper Jakob Odehnal. Floridsdorf are now without a win in five games. The 13th-placed side have won just one of their last ten games.

Horn with first home win of the season
Vienna picked up their seventh win in their last nine games - only against promotion contenders Ried (0:1) and most recently Admira had they failed to win since mid-October. New signing Bernhard Zimmermann gave the Döblingen side an early lead (8'). A header from Stripfing captain Christian Ramsebner (38') and a disastrous back pass from Simon Furtlehner, which Luca Edelhofer intercepted and converted (45'), ensured the score was clear before the break. Stripfing were only able to make up for it with a headed goal from Wilhelm Vorsager (69').

The Vienna-Austria cooperation team was the only team in the table basement that did not score. Horn caught up with Stripfing on points and handed the "red lantern" to Lafnitz with their first league home win of the season. The Waldviertel side ended a long negative streak: Horn had last been winless in twelve competitive matches, eleven of them in the league. Their last home treble to date came at the beginning of May.

Philipp Zuna gave Voitsberg the lead (16') after a free-kick was poorly fisted away by Horn goalkeeper Liu Shaoziyang. However, the Chinese player made up for his mistake by saving a weak penalty from Martin Krienzer (24'). Horn turned the game around after the break with headers from Armin Spahic (49) and Din Barlov (55). The crosses had both come from Luca Wimhofer.

SKN winning streak ends in Amstetten
Rapid II temporarily moved up to fourth place with a 2-0 win over Austria Lustenau. Ismael Seydi gave the Hütteldorfer the lead with the first shot on goal (28'), Noah Bischof increased the lead shortly after the break with a rebound (50'). It was Lustenau's tenth competitive game without a win in a row. Coach Markus Mader is also still waiting for the Bundesliga relegation team's first full success since his return. SKU Amstetten and SKN St. Pölten drew 0-0 in the Lower Austrian clash, meaning that St. Pölten have yet to concede a goal this spring and Amstetten have not scored one. However, SKN's winning streak came to an end after five league games.