In Markus Schopp’s home debut, LASK showed the first signs of what the new coach wants to see: When building up play, the opponent is spread out wide – so that space is created when moving forward to pick up speed.
Schopp surprisingly nominated Marco Sulzner in the starting eleven. The captain of the amateurs was particularly positive at the beginning with deep passes from his position as number six. He was also involved in the creation of the 1-0. In the penalty area, captain Robert Zulj played a one-two with Valon Berisha on his comeback after breaking his nose. The experienced player rounded defender Michael Lang and shot into the near corner (14th minute). Marin Ljubicic increased the lead to 2-0 with a penalty (22nd minute) – after a long check by the video referee. George Bello was brought down by Lang unintentionally and therefore unluckily.
Up until then, LASK’s performance in the opposing half looked promising, but defensive weaknesses remained. Even the lead did not provide stability. After a GAK combination on the right side of Linz’s defense, Romeo Vucic got the ball in the box, but Hrvoje Smolcic deflected his shot so that it was unstoppable for goalkeeper Jörg Siebenhandl – 1:2 (30′).
After the break, the promoted team even equalized. Once again, GAK could not be stopped on the right side of Linz, and after the cross, the ball pinged between Berisha and Lichtenberger into the goal (50′).
Assist from Entrup on debut
LASK recovered with the equalizer. Goalkeeper Jakob Meierhofer parried Ljubicic’s shot after a perfect pass from Zulj (60th minute), and when Ljubicic pushed the ball over the line to make it 3-2 three minutes later, no one was celebrating at first. The assistant referee had called offside for the assist provider Filip Stojkovic. The video referee recognized the wrong decision – and LASK celebrated belatedly.
In injury time, Adil Taoui ended the trembling with the 4:2 – after preparatory work by Maximilian Entrup, who made his LASK debut. Everything was far from good at LASK – but the victory was the first step out of the crisis.
