Europa League: Despite a moderate performance, SK Rapid is still in the playoff – German Bundesliga

In the second leg of the European League qualifying round two, it was SK Rapid Vienna For the Cypriot team Anorthosis Famagusta. After the Green-Whites’ victory at home, the away game was by no means the obvious for Vienna. Quick to catch up with helplessness, but then had to accept another goal. Today’s match wasn’t a great performance by Hütteldorfer – given the stellar performance in the first leg, however, Rapid went up to the playoff with a 4-2 aggregate. Ukrainian actor FK Zorya Lugansk is waiting there – a manageable task for Didi Kühbauer’s team.

Richard Stringer excelled in the first half, but failed in the second

In the first few minutes, Hütteldorfer tried to dominate the field. Famagusta was busy defending Hoteldorfer’s offensive attempts – and this tactic worked – because the goal-area sights that were too difficult were in short supply. When the hosts – mostly from the sides – became dangerous, the Rapidler central defense held together and also did not allow any real scoring opportunities. The only exception at this point was in the 34th minute – Lazarus Christodoulopoulos fired a cautionary shot – but Richard Strebinger extended and frustrated the goal for the hosts. The quick goalkeeper also excelled in the 38th minute when he blocked a skewed shot from Denis Popovic. In the 46th minute Robert Ljubicic ran from a good 20 meters – but Giorgio Laura had no problem with this shot. In turn, Famagusta showed how to do it – Kyle Lafferty scored to take a 1-0 lead and the hosts entered the first half with that lead.

Erkan Kara scored the equalizer for SK Rapid Wien

The second round was very torn at first, but the homeowners had the upper hand. In the 53rd minute, Christodoulopoulos brought the ball into midfield – but luckily for Rapid, the cross, which was too long, only touched the second corner. In the 64th minute, the guests finally managed to cheer. After a nice counterattack, Ercan Kara finished in the penalty area, blocked his shot and sailed into goal with an arc lamp to equalize 1:1. It was now difficult to beat the match in terms of boredom – Rapid obviously did only what was necessary and Famagusta had buried a spark The last hope to go up after the tie. The hosts still scored – in the 88th minute, Unisiphorus Rossias thanked his coach for the substitution with a 2-1 win – this resulted from a one-to-two failure by Maximilian Hoffmann and Richard Stringer. SK Rapid Wien rose with a score of 4:2. In the playoff stage of the Euroleague, FK Zorya Lugansk, who finished third in the Ukrainian league last year, awaits. With a performance like this, it wouldn’t be easy to snatch that opponent either.

Anorthosis Famagusta – Fast Win 2:1 (1:0)

Goal sequence: 1-0 (46 Lafferty), 1:1 (64 Kara), 2:1 (Russias)

constellations:

Anorthosis Famagusta (3-5-2):

Coach: Timuri Kebiya

Loria – Correira, Hambardzumyan, Arajuuri – Risvanis, Artymatas, Popovic (76. Chrysostomou), Husbauer, Lafferty (65. Rousias) – Christodoupoulos, Deletic (65. Christofi)

Rapid Vienna (4-2-3-1):

Coach: Didi Kohbauer

Streibinger – Schick (61 Wemer), Greml, Hoffmann, Ullmann – Ljubicic (61 Schuster), Grahovac – Arras (79 Sulzbacher), Fontas, Grol (69 Knsmöllner) – Kara (79 Kitagawa)

Game sounds:

Archaeology

by ReD

Photos: Richard Purgstaller and GEPA / Wien Energie