“It took longer for me to fall asleep at home.”

Immediately after the final whistle, Jannick Oberleitner didn’t really know how to classify the 2:3 defeat in the round of 16 of the cup to SK Sturm. “Emotions were very high,” says the GAK defender. Even the trip to the stadium “was incredible. I realized how important the game is. “I’ve never experienced that before,” says the 21-year-old, who moved from LASK to Graz in the summer. “I am very satisfied with GAK. The club and the whole environment are great.” The defender realizes that the German was just an additional player until the derby. “Every footballer wants to play, but I understand the coach’s decision. I try to help the team, whether by making a short appearance or something like that in the derby from the beginning.

A day before the duel with his city rivals, the Bavarians found out that they would be playing against Sturm from the start. In the 37th minute, he made the score 2-1 for the second division team. By hand. “I didn’t really notice anything. It all happened so quickly. I just saw the ball was in the goal and ran to celebrate.”

A roller coaster ride of emotions

As great as the joy was after the temporary lead, things were bitter for Oberleitner in the 58th minute when he unfortunately shot the ball into his own net. “I have never scored an own goal in my life. The fact that this happens in a game like this is of course ungrateful,” says the German. “It took a while before I could sleep later at home.”

But after a day, pride took over. “We were on par with the leaders of the Bundesliga. In this match we realized that we can go on, and that should be enough motivation for the upcoming tasks in the tournament to move forward in the title race,” says Oberleitner, whose parents flew from Munich and his girlfriend from Vienna to be there live. Directly: “We want to hold such games more next year.”

Today (6:30pm) he will have one eye on Germany when Dortmund take on Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Oberleitner’s father, Marcus, was in Bayern’s Bundesliga squad in the 1996/97 season. “I’m a bit of a Bayern fan,” says the youngster, who has also been active with the record German champions as a youth team.