2024-10-04 13:09:39
In the Bundesliga, Vienna Austria welcomes bottom team GAK on Saturday (5 p.m.). Both clubs are struggling with a negative series, for the promoted team from Graz, after eight rounds without a win, it is about the first three points ever. Austria wants to achieve its third success of the season at the distribution circle. “We’re playing at home and we’re still unbeaten. With our fans there’s only one direction, that’s three points,” said defender Reinhold Ranftl.
The eighth-placed “Veilchen” have had a winless September in the league, their last three-pointer being on August 25th (2-1 against LASK). The most recent opponents were Salzburg (0:2), Sturm Graz (2:2) and Rapid (1:2). “We were disappointed and partly annoyed because we could have done more and we performed well for long stretches,” explained Austria coach Stephan Helm, who criticized the lack of results in the first quarter of the season.
“Our demands are high. But we have a basis on which we can build,” said Helm, calling for more efficiency for the game against GAK, for which 12,000 tickets have already been sold. “We’re investing a lot, so we want to reward ourselves with points. We want to show tomorrow that we’re one step further, that we’ve drawn the right conclusions from the last few games.”
Ranftl described the Styrians as “tough opponents who rightly play in the Bundesliga.” The people of Graz have also unfortunately underperformed themselves for Helm. For the duel, the 41-year-old can again rely on offensive strength Andreas Gruber after his shoulder dislocation. “He has had a good week of training and is available for the game tomorrow.” Marvin Martins, who has recovered, doesn’t look likely to play as the central defender took a hit in training. The 29-year-old is heading to the national team in Luxembourg next week.
Ziad El Sheiwi, Luca Pazourek, Johannes Handl and Abubakr Barry will have to be patient a little longer, as they will only start training again after the international break. Barry is also suspended for the game against GAK. Tactically, Helm, who had recently relied on a three-man chain instead of four against Salzburg, did not want to show his hand. “Both formations have their advantages and disadvantages. We want to surprise the GAK.”
In the meantime, the promoted team is trying to remain patient despite the league’s false start and not let a mood of crisis arise. “I’ve never had a situation like this before, especially having conceded so many goals (16) in eight games. It’s not an easy phase at the moment, but we’re still going from game to game with a really good one attitude to the game,” explained goalkeeper Jakob Meierhofer, adding: “Nobody has the feeling that we are in a crisis.”
However, coach Gernot Messner made it unmistakably clear that “the learning phase is over” for the promoted team and that only what can be counted is true. But the respect for the opponents in the Generali Arena is great. “Austria is playing at home against the last team, so they have the expectation that they will win the game. They have good footballers in their ranks and will definitely want to dominate us.”
A threesome for the GAK would be extremely important given the rest of the program after the international break. Then the “Rotjackets” have their first city derby against Sturm Graz in the Bundesliga in more than 17 years (October 19th), followed by duels with Rapid (October 27th) and Salzburg (November 2nd). By the way, the last two competitive games against Austria went to Graz: in the last league duel in spring 2007 there was a 2-1 win as well as in the ÖFB Cup at the beginning of 2019.
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