June 1, 2025
Today saw the final match of the 2024/25 Austrian Bundesliga season with the second leg of the Conference League Play-off between SK Rapid Wien and LASK, and was an ideal opportunity for Fatbear to review a match in Austria for the first time. The first leg ended in a 3-1 victory for LASK which Rapid would need to overturn in the second leg in order to qualify for the Europa Conference Second Qualifying Round.
Summary of the 2024/25 Season
The Austrian Bundesliga, known as the Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, consists of 12 sides who play each other twice for a 22 game regular season. The top six progress to Championship Round, whilst the bottom six play in the Relegation Round for 10 more matches. Points earned in the regular season are halved and then rounded down.
Sturm Graz and Austria Wien finished level on 46 points at the end of the regular season, with Sturm Graz having the better goal difference. Red Bull Salzburg were 8 points adrift in third, with Wolfsberg, Rapid Wien and Blau-Weiss Linz making up the top six.
Sturm Graz went on to win their fifth title, and their second in a row, to qualify for the UEFA Champions League play-off round, finishing two points clear of Red Bull Salzburg. After winning 10 consecutive titles, Salzburg had now failed two years in a row, but had the consolation of qualifying for the Champions League Second Qualifying Round. Austria Wien faded to finish third and so enter the Europa Conference, whilst AC Wolfsberger finished fourth but will play in the Europa League by virtue of winning the Austrian Cup.
Rapid Wien came 5th and so had to play LASK, who were the best placed side in the Relegation Round for a place in the Europa Conference.
LASK had finished in 7th place in the regular season, and finished 7 points clear of TSV Hartberg in the Relegation Round. These two sides then met for the right to play Rapid for European football next season, and LASK were victorious 2-0 in front of a crowd of 8,100, thanks to goals from Maximillian Entrup and Andres Andrade.
Austria Klagenfurt finished bottom to be relegated and will be replaced by SV Reid in the Bundesliga next season.
Previous Meetings This Seasons
In the two league meetings a 1-1 draw was played out in Vienna in September but LASK won the return 2-1 in February.
The first leg of the play-off was played before a crowd of 13,200 and two goals from Robert Zulj and one from Ismaila Coulibaly helped LASK to a 3-1 win. Rapid’s goal came from a penalty by Mathias Seidl, which made the score 1-1 at half-time.
SK Rapid Wien
Rapid Wien have won the Austrian championship more times than anyone else, with 32 titles, although the most recent was in 2007/08. The have also won the Austrian Cup 14 times, which has helped them reach the European Cup Winners Cup Final on two occasions, losing 1-3 to Everton in 1984/85 and 0-1 to Paris St Germain in 1995/96.
Home is the 28,600 capacity Allianz Stadion and their nickname is Die Grun-Weissen, the Green and Whites, after their green and white colours.
Rapid finished in 4th place in 2023/34 to qualify for Europe, where they played 16 matches this season. Starting in the Europa League, they overcame Wisla Krakow ( 8-2 on aggregate ) and Trabzonspor ( 3-0 on aggregate ) before being eliminated 3-4 on aggregate by Portuguese side Braga.
Dropping down to the Europa Conference Group stage, they had a record of 4 wins, a draw and one loss to qualify for the knock-out rounds. Istanbul Basaksehir ( A 2-1 ), Armenian side Noah ( H 1-0 ), Moldovan side Petrocub ( A 3-0 ) and FC Copenhagen ( H 3-0 ) were all beaten, whilst the draw was with Shamrock Rovers ( H 1-1 ) and the defeat came in Cyprus to Omonia Nicosia ( 1-3 ).
Rapid needed extra time to eliminate Bosnian side Borac Banja Luka 3-2 over two legs, but they lost at home in extra time to Djurgardens. Having won 1-0 in Sweden, Rapid failed to finish the job, and having pulled the tie back to 2-2, Djurgardens went on to score twice more in extra time to win 4-1 on the night.
Rapid have been the best supported team in the Austrian Bundesliga this season, with an average of 19,973.
SK Rapid Wien Squad
Veteran striker Guido Burgstaller had played for Cardiff City, Schalke, Nurnberg and St Pauli, and had won 26 caps for Austria. Attacking midfielder Matthias Siedl had 8 caps and keeper Niklas Hedl had one cap for Austria. Striker Ercan Kara was on loan from Turkish side Samsunspor.
Hungarian full-back Bendeguz Bolla ( 26 caps ) was signed by Wolverhampton Wanderers but never played a game for them, being loaned out to Grasshoppers and Servette, before joining Rapid on a free transfer. Attacking midfielder Andrija Radulovic was on loan from Vojvodina and had 6 caps for Montenegro, Ivorian midfielder Romeo Amane had previously played for Swedish side Hacken and Serbia centre-back Nenad Cvetkovic was a dead ringer for Nemanja Vidic !
French defender Serge-Philippe Raux Yao had a short spell with Cercle Brugge, whilst Croatian forward Dion Beljo ( 2 caps ) has previously featured in these diaries when playing for Osijek and Istra 1961 in his homeland.
Beljo was Rapid’s leading goal scorer with 9 league goals, with out of favour Swedish forward Isak Jansson next with 7 goals.
LASK
Linzer Athletik Sports-Klub ( LASK ) play in the city of Linz, which is the third largest city in Austria with a population of around 270,000.
LASK are one of the oldest clubs in the country. Founded in 1908, they have won just one league title, back in 1964/65, but were runners-up in 2018/19. Their one Austrian Cup success was also in 1964/65.
Home is the 19,080 capacity Raiffeisen Arena and their traditional home colours are black and white stripes, giving them the nickname of Die Schwarz-Weissen ( The Black and Whites ). Their average home attendances this season were 12,083.
Last season LASK finished third to qualify for the Europa League play-off round where they were beaten 1-2 on aggregate by Romanian side FCSB, conceding the decisive goal in the 93th minute of the second leg in Bucharest.
Dropping down to the Europa League Group phase, LASK had a horrible campaign mustering just three draws in their home matches ( Djurgarden 2-2, Cercle Brugge 0-0 and Vikingur Reykjavik 1-1 ) and lost all three away games ( Olimpija Ljubljana 0-2, Borac Banja Luka 1-2 and Fiorentina 0-7 ) to finish 35th out of 36.
LASK Squad
Perhaps the most familiar name in the LASK squad to English viewers was ex-Bayern Munich and Manchester City German defender Jerome Boateng ( 76 caps ). However, Boateng was to be an unused substitute today.
Ex-RB Salzburg & Lazio midfielder Valon Berisha has won 20 caps for Norway and 49 for Kosovo, and was featured in these diaries playing for Melbourne City in 2023, but was missing today through injury. Midfielder Ismaila Coulibaly had played for Sheffield United and Beerschot and had one cap for Mali, ex-Arminia Bielefeld defender Andres Andrade had 36 caps for Panama, and Czech midfielder Krystof Danek was on loan from Sparta Prague.
American full-back George Bello ( 7 caps ) was another ex-Arminia Bielefeld player and Croatian centre-back Hrvoje Smolcic was on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt. Dutch defender Melayro Bogarde was the nephew of former Dutch international Winston Bogarde, and Serbian midfielder Branko Jovicic was ex-Red Star Belgrade. American winger Sam Adeniran had played in the MLS with Seattle Sounders, St Louis City and Philadelphia Union
Striker Maximillian Entrup had won 3 caps for Austria and keeper Tobias Lawal has been called up to the Austrian national squad but was yet to make his debut. Captain Robert Zulj had played in Germany for Hoffenheim and Union Berlin.
Entrup was the leading goal scorer for LASK in league games with 13 goals, followed by Zulj with 9 goals.
Matchday Information
The journey from Linz to Vienna is around 180 km and should normally take just over 2 hours.
The weather at the 17.00 local time kick-off ( 16.00 Uk ) was sunny and 30 degrees
Adult tickets for the game ranged between €19 to €30.
The match was shown live on onefootball.com. Bet365.com, who also live streamed the match offered odds for the result after 90 minutes of Rapid 19/20 favourites, with LASK and the draw both at 13/5.
Rapid made one change from the first leg, with Lukas Grgic replacing Louis Schaub, who dropped to the bench. LASK also made one change, as Ivan Ljubic replaced Sascha Horvath, who wasn’t in the matchday squad.
Rapid were playing in their traditional green and white striped shirts, with green shorts and socks. LASK were in a change kit of mostly black shirts but with the top half of the front being red, with black shirts and socks.
Match Report
The Rapid fans were in good voice at the kick-off and there was plenty of flag waving. However, it was LASK who started quickly and a dangerous low ball from the right wing needed to be put off at the near post for a corner.
Rapid’s first attack came in the 5th minute but Burgstaller’s header from Bolla’s cross sailed gently high into the air for Lawal to take an easy catch. Rapid were slowly increasing the tempo and Bello needed to head a cross from the left over his own bar for Rapid’s first corner of the game, which was headed away on the 6 yard line.
Two minutes later there was poor communication in the Rapid defence. Cvetkovic should have allowed a through ball to go through to his keeper, but being unsure where Danek was, and not getting any message from Hedl, he opted for safety first to put the ball off for a corner.
It had been a competitive start with the tackles flying in, and the referee had to speak sternly on several occasions. The referee finally put his hand into his pocket to produce a yellow card after Dominik Vincze had hauled Florian Flecker to the ground.
In the 18th minute Nikolaus Wurmbrand was found in space on the right-hand side of the LASK penalty area but he was closed down by Smolcic, who conceded a corner. It was to be the last contribution from Wurmbrand, who hobbled off to be replaced by Radulovic
A long cross-field ball found Burgstaller in space beyond the far post, but there was no teammate on hand to tap in his left-footed volley across the face of the goal, and Flecker put the ball off to give Rapid another corner.
LASK’s Ljubic then saw yellow after tripping Bolla, after which Rapid won another corner following a block from Bello to a cross from the right. The corner was cleared but swung back in left-footed by Radulovic. Siedl was lurking beyond the far post, and his volley from a tight angle beat the keeper, but Andrade was able to head off the line to prevent the opening goal of the game.
After 29 minutes, LASK keeper Lawal took an age take a free-kick, earning an admonishment from the referee, but no yellow card.
A minute later Burgstaller was off-side when trying to latch onto a long ball out of the Rapid defence. Smolcic took the free-kick inside the LASK area, but passed straight to Burgstaller, who immediately shot left-footed from 20 yards into the bottom corner. Lawal didn’t move, but it was 1-0 with 30 minutes played.
Despite taking the lead, something seemed to upset the Rapid bench as two yellow cards were brandished to those looking on, and three minutes later a card was shown to one of the LASK substitutes.
LASK’s response to falling behind was for Zulj to get to the byline after a back-heel had put him clear, but his low cross was cleared. The cards continued to flow, this time Cvetkovic being on the receiving end after flattening Entrup.
With 7 minutes to go before the interval, a diagonal Rapid free-kick was headed goalwards by Burgstaller but Amane needlessly pushed keeper Lawal out of the way for an obvious free-kick. Four minutes later Burgstaller and Siedl twice exchanged first time passes around the edge of the LASK area putting Siedl clear, but his prod from 12 yards went narrowly wide of the far post.
On the stroke of half-time a Rapid corner was met by Cvetkovic ahead of the near post but his header sailed high over the bar. As the players headed for the dressing rooms Burgstaller heatedly complained to referee about something, and eventually the official’s patience wore out and Burgstaller had a yellow card for his protests.
The heavens had opened just before the break, something that hadn’t been forecasted by the BBC weather pages ! It was still raining as the second half commenced.
Rapid started brightly and a cross from the right-hand byline needed a good clearing header from Andrade, then a through ball looked like it might put Burgstaller clear, but Lawal eventually came off his line to dive onto the ball.
At the other end, a left-wing cross from Smolcic saw Entrup slide in, but on the stretch, he could only put the ball wide of the near post.
Bolla optimistically shot from long range, sending the ball about 20 yards wide, but a minute later Moritz Oswald did much better but his 20-yarder went straight at the keeper, who gathered at the second attempt.
A LASK free-kick reached Bello beyond the far post and his volley across goal hit a Rapid defender and looped into the air. Rapid keeper strangely allowed the ball to bounce, before then gathering the loose ball.
It was still raining and some puddles had appeared on the pitch. Burgstaller got drenched after hitting the deck following a challenge with Modou Cisse.
Zulj did well to turn inside the Rapid area, but his ball across the goalmouth wasn’t anticipated by his colleagues, and Hedl was able to gather.
With around 30 minutes remaining it appeared as if the rain had stopped. LASK introduced Adeniran, who straight away went on a mazy run, beating at least three defenders to get into the Rapid area. His shot wasn’t the most powerful but it was heading into the far corner until Hedl managed to get a hand to it, pushing the ball onto the post. Fellow substitute Christoph Lang was first the rebound but from a very tight angle could only shot across goal and wide.
LASK were enjoying a good spell, and when a free-kick struck a defender, Smolcic volleyed a couple of feet over from 20 yards. Zulj then entered the referee’s notebook for a cynical foul on Bolla.
A sloppy pass from Coulibaly enable Rapid to launch a rapid counter-attack and a reverse pass put Seidl in space inside the LASK area. His first attempt was bravely blocked by Cisse sliding into the path of the shot, but Siedl could only put the rebound wide from 8 yards. It could have been a costly miss.
The game’s pivotal moment came in the 76th minute. There didn’t seem to be anything of note when Radulovic tumbled to the ground in the LASK area after a challenge from Smolcic, and the referee waved play on. Rapid reworked possession to Oswald, who cut onto his right-foot, but his shot was headed over the bar by Andrade. However, VAR advised the referee to take a look at the pitch side monitor, and after a minute or so, the penalty was given. It was the short of decision at which you would be furious if it was given against your side, but if it was for your side, it was a penalty all-day long !
Lawal was booked for his protests at the decision and Siedl stepped up to take the kick. He put the penalty in the same place as the first leg, Lawal managed to get a hand to the penalty, diving to his right, but the ball bounced up into the roof of the net. It was now 2-0 after 81 minutes and 3-3 on aggregate.
LASK came out of their shell in search of a winning goal. Flecker did well to get to the byline on the right wing but Hedl made a good catch to claim the cross. With 5 minutes remaining Adeniran prodded the ball past Hedl from 10 yards after persistent play from Coulibaly had won possession and played a short pass through the square Rapid backline, but the goal was chalked off for offside. VAR confirmed the decision so it stay level on aggregate.
The game was now being played in bright sunshine as 6 extra minutes were displayed. In the fourth added minute Burgstaller was put in space on the left, and he delivered a splendid left-footed cross. Substitute Kara managed to get ahead of Smolcic and buried a header into the bottom corner for a dramatic winner. 3-0 in the 94th minute.
Kara was booked for his celebrations, taking off his shirt and jumping into the crowd. There was still time for three more minutes to be played but Rapid comfortably saw the game out to take their place in the Europa Conference.
SK Rapid Wien : Hedl – Bolla, Cvetkovic, Raux Yao, Vincze ( Kara ) – Oswald, Amane, Grgic ( Schaub ), Seidl, Wurmbrand ( Radulovic ) - Burgstaller
LASK : Lawal – Cisse, Andrade, Smolcic – Flecker, Coulibaly, Ljubic, Bello – Danek ( Lang ), Entrup ( Adeniran ), Zulj
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