After a weak first half, Mika Biereth (52nd), who had already been successful in the first leg, finally brought clarity to Bratislava with the only goal of the evening soon following the break. On Friday (1 p.m.) the opponent in the round of the best 16 will be determined in Nyon – there are duels with Lille, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Viktoria Plzen, FC Brugge, Aston Villa, Rapid conqueror Fiorentina, PAOK Saloniki or Fenerbahce Istanbul.
It is already Sturm’s greatest international success in 23 years when he made it into the second group phase of the Champions League, which was still being held at the time. Austria’s cup winner is also the second Austrian team in the round of 16; in the ECL premiere season two years ago, LASK also made it into the top 16 of the third highest UEFA competition.
On the last stretch of the way there, Ilzer chose a 4-2-2-2 as a tactical formation with Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Dimitri Lavalee as a double six in midfield. The recently injured Manprit Sarkaria and Jusuf Gazibegovic, like Tomi Horvat, initially sat on the bench, but Max Johnston and William Böving moved into the starting line-up.
Slovan, in whose defense Austro legionnaire Kevin Wimmer once once more worked, unsurprisingly tried to apply a lot of pressure right from the start and with a volley from Gerson Rodriguez over the goal (8th) and a dangerous finish from Juraj Kuckas (24th). The crossbar was close to making it 1-0.
The Slovakian record champions generally had significantly more control of the game over large parts of the first half than the Graz team, who were lurking on the counterattack but often made hectic mistakes and were once once more very close to making it 1-0 shortly before the break thanks to David Strelec. Sturm goalie Vitezslav Jaros reacted brilliantly to the shot from short range (45th), Sturm escaped to the dressing room with a black eye.
A good 25 minutes later, the Graz team, who had previously only recorded a harmless finish from Max Johnston (7th), closed the bag. After letting the last defender out, Biereth completed a counterattack perfectly and celebrated his third goal in the fifth game for the Blackys. A little later he almost negligently missed his fourth, but because he caught the ball poorly, goalkeeper Milan Borjan was able to intervene (61′).
Slovan, who reached the ECL round of 16 in 2023, seemed shocked, but by no means gave up. And because Sturm also posed more danger offensively than in the first 45 minutes, 19,870 spectators in a good mood – including around 2,300 Graz fans – experienced a thoroughly entertaining end to the game despite the difficult conditions. Sturm almost made it 2-0, but “Joker” Tomi Horvat was offside at the beginning of the final quarter of an hour (76th). In stoppage time, Slovan’s Cesar Blackman saw red following an emergency stop once morest Sarkaria.
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