Mika Biereth with a goal (18th) and Otar Kiteishvili with a self-taken penalty (71st) scored the double winners, who were superior for a long time, to their fifth victory in the championship after three competitive games without a win. Sturm is now one point ahead of Rapid, three ahead of Salzburg, who have played two games less. Graz’s joy was marred by a suspected elbow injury to captain Jon Gorenc Stankovic.
Also read: 1:1 – LASK took a point from Rapid
Thomas Goiginger made it 1-1 with his first league goal for Blau-Weiß (33′). However, Gerald Scheiblehner’s team could not prevent their first home defeat of the season.
Sturm dominated from the start in front of a sold-out crowd (5,595), pushed the Linzers deep at times and took the lead after 18 minutes. Brighton loan player Malick Yalcouyé moved inside after clever physical deception and hammered the ball onto the crossbar from just outside the penalty area – Biereth sank the rebound.
Blue and white were offensively harmless at the start
For Linz, it was the first goal conceded at home this season after successes against Austria, Rapid and LASK. Scheiblehner called up the starting eleven that had won twice recently. His team had a lot to do defensively against the variable champions and was completely harmless on offense for half an hour.
Image: GEPA pictures/Daniela Moser
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Image: GEPA pictures/Daniela Moser
The guests could have increased the score through William Böving, who failed to hit the ball properly after a low corner (33′), but instead invited the opponent to equalize. Max Johnston undercut an Anderson cross and goalie Kjell Scherpen slipped the Stangl pass to Goiginger (33′). Sturm complained in vain about a handball in the making.
The second half began for Graz without Gorenc Stankovic, who had an unfortunate injury to his arm during injury time from a corner. Tochi Chukwuani replaced the midfield stabilizer. The picture remained the same: Sturm set the tone, the Linzers showed in a compact block why they had only conceded one goal in the last four competitive games. The result was a few high-profile players.
Ilzer tried to increase the pressure by bringing in Kiteishvili, who was initially spared, and Erencan Yardimci. Kiteishvili’s quick step also led the champion to victory. The Georgian was quicker than Silvan Wallner when he followed up in the penalty area and sent Andreas Lukse into the wrong corner with the following penalty.
With more risk, the home team then had half chances. Storm remained more dangerous, but without final emphasis. The champions seemed to bring home their first win in almost a month without any major problems – before things went awry in stoppage time. Scherpen was there with two brilliant deeds against Ronivaldo (94th, 95th), Manuel Maranda put the follow-up shot on the top edge of the crossbar.
