Philipp Ziereis scored the decisive goal in the 93rd minute in Linz’s 2-1 (1-1) win on Wednesday evening. Maximilian Fillafer (20th) had brought Hartberger ahead before Florian Flecker (44th) equalized. In the second half, the Upper Austrians searched in vain for the winning goal, which came late.
Four rounds before the end of the season, the athletes are now six points ahead of the Hartbergers, who fell back to sixth place in the table behind Klagenfurt, who won against Salzburg. For LASK it was also the first league win against the Styrians after eleven unsuccessful attempts in June 2020. For interim coach Thomas Darazs it meant the second win in the third game of his term in office.
At LASK they wanted to show a reaction after the 1:3 in the first leg on Sunday. Darazs also did this in the formation, he relied on the back four, in the 4-2-3-1 the Frenchman Adil Taoui made his starting eleven debut in the Bundesliga as a central man. His counterpart had no reason to change. Markus Schopp trusted the recently successful team.
LASK played high pressing
The game started as expected. The Hartbergers often launched the well-maintained build-up of the game at risk, while the Linzers tried to disrupt it right from the start. The athletes were clearly eager to forget the home defeat and worked their way dangerously towards Raphael Sallinger several times in the first 20 minutes. Moses Usor tried with a header, Taoui tried from a distance, before Usor was again denied by the TSV goalkeeper. However, Hartberger scored the goal from their first really dangerous scene.
After a cross pass from Maximilian Entrup, Fillafer was completely free in the middle of three LASK defenders and finished. An initially indicated offside position by Entrup was corrected by the VAR – the goal counted. He had an impact on the Linzers, but the guests still managed to get their deserved equalizer just before the break. Jürgen Heil saved from Marin Ljubicic, but the former Hartberg professional Flecker was spot on.
Ljubicic missed twice from the best position
Both teams felt they had a chance to get more than just a point in the second half. Donis Avdijaj volleyed the ball onto the outside bar (59′), before Ljubicic, who was ideally cleared, achieved the feat of rolling the ball past the goal from four meters (63′). Less than ten minutes later, the Croatian once again only had Sallinger in front of him and he failed to finish again (70′). With a quarter of an hour to go, Flecker rose high after a corner, Sallinger parried, although it appeared that Entrup got hold of the bouncing ball. Referee Sebastian Gishamer went to the screen, but did not see any intentional handball by the national player.
LASK’s leadership would have been more than deserved. It should fall late. After a Berisha free kick deep in stoppage time, Ziereis was in the right place and maneuvered the ball over the line.
