This has never happened before at the Hofmann-Personal Stadium: Blau-Weiß Linz suffered its second home defeat in a row with a 0-1 defeat in the Bundesliga against Wolfsberg.
Of all things, a goal from a standard situation made the difference in the duel between the table neighbors: After a corner from Dejan Zukic, Chibuike Nwaiwu (24th) headed in the decisive goal for Wolfsberger. “We warned about that, they have an outstanding shooter in Zukic. But I don’t blame anyone. We delivered an ambitious performance, it just wasn’t meant to be,” says Blue and White coach Gerald Scheiblehner.
“It has to be in there”
In the first half, Simon Seidl and Thomas Goiginger missed good chances, the second half generally went on a slippery slope. Blue-White fought back against the deficit, but only had the best chance to equalize in the finish through Matthias Seidl and Silvan Wallner. “I don’t often get into situations like this, but it has to be there,” said the 22-year-old Swiss angrily after the final whistle. Seidl saw it similarly: “We put a lot of pressure on, had a lot of moves forward. It’s of little use to you. If you don’t score a goal, you can’t buy anything from it.”
There had already been a “Watschn” before kick-off: for Scheiblehner from his coaching colleague Didi Kühbauer. “It’s always fun with him. I said before the game that the WAC is a top-six team. He gave me one for that and told me not to say that publicly anymore,” explained Scheiblehner with a smile.
The lesson hasn’t changed his opinion: “There are some teams that will play for the top six. In my opinion, this still includes the WAC.” The Carinthians proved that with their victory in Linz.
Goalkeeper wanted, crowd favorite returned
From the blue and white’s perspective, a positive aspect of the defeat against Wolfsberg was Radek Vitek’s comeback: the goalkeeper returned to the starting line-up after his knee injury – and also defused one or two tricky situations. Because Andreas Lukse, the Czech’s replacement in recent weeks, will probably be out for months with a shoulder injury, 19-year-old Bernd Aineter took a seat on the bench against the WAC. “We are currently taking a risk in the goalkeeper position,” says coach Gerald Scheiblehner.
Which is why the market for goalies without a club has already been explored; we will have to react to this position in the winter transfer period at the latest. Because it is questionable whether Lukse will return: Lukse: “I’m thinking about the time after my career anyway, regardless of the injury. I know that I won’t play forever, but I still assume that I’ll be there from February or “I’ll start training again in March if I can, and if not, I’d like to do something else in the summer.”
While Lukse watched his colleagues on their feet from the stands, a new – but still familiar to the blue and white fans – face took a seat on the support bench for the first time: former crowd favorite Manuel Hartl is new to the blue and white support team as a physiotherapist.
