Although newly promoted FC Blau-Weiß remained winless in the tenth Bundesliga match in a row and has been waiting for a complete success since November 12th (2-0 once morest LASK), the Linzers draw confidence from this performance in the 0-0 draw in front of 11,729 Visitors in the Vienna Generali Arena. In the qualifying group, in which Gerald Scheiblehner’s team initially increased their lead over bottom team Lustenau to five points, every point can decide whether they stay in the league or are relegated. “Defensively we were very stable, we won a lot of duels,” said sports director Christoph Schößwendter.
Nevertheless, the course of the game would have given much more. The Violets appeared undisciplined (not for the first time). The Oberhaus starting eleven debut of the initially over-motivated Moritz Wels (19) was over once more following the second foul and only 17 minutes – yellow/red.
At this point, Blue and White should have already been leading. After a failed rescue attempt by Galvao, Ronivaldo, who celebrated his 35th birthday last Sunday, ran up and away, but his lob was the prey of Austria goalkeeper Christian Früchtl (4th). “We’ve been talking regarding determination all week, so I expect more from Ronny,” emphasized Schößwendter.
It wasn’t the only great chance for Linz, who had a very solid four-man defense chain for the first time since August. Conor Noß also had a goal in front of his foot, but his shot from a promising position was blocked by teammate Simon Seidl (offside) (33′).
Ronivaldo retired injured
Austria only became dangerous sporadically, with Blue and White setting the tone for long stretches even following the break. The bottom line was 14:7 shots and a so-called expected goals value of 1.04:0.24 in favor of Linz, who had Noß (55th), Paul Mensah (63rd) and “Joker” Kristijan Dobras (78.) became dangerous.
This pleased the hundreds of Blue and White fans in the brilliantly packed Alex Reed sector, who only felt speechless once. In the 75th minute, Ronivaldo doubled up following a collision, holding his right knee and limping off the field. There were two match points in the finish – one for the Austrian Galvao (82′), the last on the other side for Mensah (91′). Ultimately, the “zero diet” suited Good Friday.
The voices for the game
- Gerald Scheiblehner (Blau-Weiß-Linz coach): “We put in a very good performance over 90 minutes, we were right in the game, had a great chance, but unfortunately we missed it. Everyone expects the yellow-red card, that Blue and White takes command – as promoted teams in Vienna at Austria. If you look closely at the game and the teams, you know that this is not to be expected. We are very happy with the point and with the performance. “
- Michael Wimmer (Austria coach): “We would have liked to win the game. The 15th minute (referral, note) messed up the plan a bit. But I still think it was clearly visible that we played to win despite being outnumbered, that we wanted to win the game, that we invested more in the game. We tried to create chances through possession, but we didn’t really succeed. But that is always difficult once morest a deep opponent. We didn’t allow much going back, the team defended it well.”
Author
Alexander Zambarloukos
Sports editor
Alexander Zambarloukos
