The 336th Vienna Derby ended on Sunday with a 1-1 draw. The Hütteldorfer keep the distance to the city rivals. The focus was on goalscorer Bernhard Zimmerman, who saw yellow-red during the course of the game.
SK Rapid took the lead through Bernhard Zimmermann following 37 minutes. However, the goal scorer saw an unnecessary yellow card following celebrating his goal too much, which was fatal for the green-whites, as the center forward was sent off by referee Christopher Jäger following a foul on Matthias Braunöder following almost an hour. Then Austria ran out with a numerical majority and came to a well-deserved equalizer through Joker Noah Ohio.
“I haven’t realized all of that yet. It started well, but Oasch continued,” said Rapid striker Zimmermann following the final whistle Sky. “When I score a goal, then of course I celebrate it. A derby goal even more. Actually, I wanted to cheer in front of my own fans. I let my emotions guide me a bit. That was a bit unexperienced, but it will definitely not happen once more.”
Ferdinand Feldhofer: “Huge opportunity missed”
Coach Ferdinand Feldhofer’s anger was limited. “I’ve seen other players cheering in front of our sector and they didn’t get anything. It’s always a tact. It doesn’t take many words once you’ve looked him in the face. It’s a learning process.”
Overall, Feldhofer saw his squad better for an hour, “following that it was a clear yellow-red from my point of view. Then we defended ourselves, but we didn’t do very well in defence.”
This means the race for third place, which guarantees a European group stage and millions in revenue, is still open with two rounds to go. The Green-Whites are two points ahead of Austria and remain in pole position. Next Sunday at 5:00 p.m., Wiener Austria will play once morest Klagenfurter Austria, while Rapid Wien will be hosting Red Bull Salzburg at the same time.
“We missed a huge opportunity to set ourselves apart from the competition. Nevertheless, we are still ahead and have it in our own hands. It will be exciting until the last game,” says Feldhofer.
Manfred Schmid: “The starting position is very good”
Naturally, Austria coach Manfred Schmid analyzed the game differently. He did not give either team the best report card. “If you take the beginning, it was totally torn apart. There was hardly any flow of the game inside. I had the feeling that we would come into play a bit,” said Schmid. “We then fell behind due to a play error and a blunder. After the exclusion it was a one-way game. We basically had three to four seaters. I’m disappointed that we didn’t bend that over.”
Schmid still sees the chances of third place intact, knowing full well that SK Rapid will be visiting series champions Salzburg in the next round. “The starting position is very good. Of course we have to hope for Rapid to fall over. But they no longer have easy opponents (Red Bull Salzburg and WAC, note). But we have to win both games now, then we have a great chance of reaching third place.”
