Revenge mission incomplete | OneFootball

Draw by the Danube in Linz

We dominated the play for long periods of our first visit to the new home of FC Blau-Weiß Linz without being able to win it. The spectators at the sold-out Hofmann Personal Stadion were treated to the fastest goal in Austrian Bundesliga history. Petar Ratkov's strike in the opening seconds remained the only one for our Red Bulls, however.

Match summary

Whatever Gerald Scheiblehner had told his side from Linz before kick-off, they would have to think again after just five seconds as Gerhard Struber's charges threw everything up in the air. Petar Ratkov intelligently charged down on Nicolas Schmid in the hosts' goal, and his intended long kick upfield ended up bouncing straight off our Serbian striker and into the net for an extremely early lead (1').

The goalscorer was played through by Fernando soon afterward, but the hosts' goalkeeper was more alert this time to deny him a second (3'). Things continued in that tone, with Oscar Gloukh bursting into the Blue and Whites' six-yard box and cutting back for Ratkov, who was blocked before he could guide a shot on target (10').

The Upper Austrians then responded - Manuel Maranda headed from a Fabio Strauß free-kick to equalise (12') and we were all square again. It took a few minutes for our boys to regather, but they upped their defensive efforts – with Maurits Kjaergaard getting a big chance to restore the lead after a zinging pass from Luka Sucic (22').

After a bit of a midfield battle, Gerhard Stuber's charges stepped up the pace again towards the end of the first period with Fernando and Strahinja Pavlovic all having efforts (34', 44' and 45'). No further strikes came though, and it remained 1-1 as we broke for half-time in the neat new stadium - with referee Alan Kijas not seeing a challenge from Maranda on Ratkov on the edge of the box as being worthy of a free-kick (45+1').

The first minutes of the second half belonged to our Red Bulls. Gloukh had a go from 20 metres out (48'), Ratkov saw the ball just taken away from him by Schmid before he could strike (51') and Sucic hit the post after receiving a pass from Fernando (53') as our boys saw big chances to retake the lead.

The hosts, for their part, threatened Alex Schlager once or twice on the break, without fashioning any major chances. Gloukh kept on creating chances, but his effort flew a fraction wide of the target (64').

As the game went on, the hosts focused on dropping back and doing everything to stop our waves of attacks - something they ultimately did well. Even the sending off of Kristijan Dobras for a straight red card for diving into the knee of Sekou Koita at the end of close to ten minutes of stoppage time could not alter the final score.

The away point sees us extend our lead at the top of the table to three points, but Sturm Graz have an opportunity to pull level tomorrow with a win.

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Andreas Ulmer

Gerhard Struber

Line-up

Substitutions

Terzic for Ulmer (65'), Koita for Fernando (65'), Simic for Ratkov (76')

Yellow card

Struber (85' dissent)

Injury news

Not available for the game were Samson Baidoo (ankle), Nicolas Capaldo (knee), Amar Dedic (thigh), Leandro Morgalla (heart muscle inflammation) and Dorgeles Nene (ankle). Karim Konate returned from the African Cup of Nations yesterday.