LASK faces a particularly difficult task in the Bundesliga on Sunday (2.30 p.m.): The athletes are guests of SK Sturm, who took the next step towards defending their title in the cup: The Graz team won 4-3 in the semi-finals in Salzburg revenge for the Bundesliga defeat five days earlier.
On Sunday, Salzburg overtook their pursuers for the championship title with a 1-0 win, and in the “second leg” in Salzburg, Oumar Solet put the home team in the lead – the player for whom Graz had demanded a subsequent suspension because of the stranglehold in the Bundesliga duel.
The defending cup champions deserved the equalizer from William Böving (25′), then Alexander Schlager gave Sturm a place in the final: First, the Salzburg goalkeeper couldn’t tame Tomi Horvath’s harmless shot (52′), even when the score was 3-1 David Schnegg (71st) didn’t look good. Linz-born Luka Sucic fueled Salzburg’s hopes of extra time with the 2:3 (79′), which Niklas Geyrhofer (81′) destroyed with the 4:2. The replacement of key Storm player Jon Gorenc-Stankovic, who was suspended as he was on Sunday against LASK, scored with a header after a corner from the five-pointer – Schlager would probably have had to intervene again on the cross.
In the final again against Rapid
Aleksa Terzic made stoppage time exciting with 3:4 (90th), but Sturm prevailed away in Salzburg, as in the quarter-finals of the previous season (5:4 after penalties). The final opponent on May 1st in Klagenfurt is once again Rapid. Sturm’s euphoria will probably blow away any tiredness ahead of Sunday’s Bundesliga game against LASK.
