SK Sturm Graz steal a point as champions St Pölten remain top of Frauen Bundesliga | OneFootball

St Pölten shared points at the NV Arena in lower Austria as they drew 1-1 with SK Sturm Graz, bringing their winning streak against the Styrian side of six games to an end. St Pölten remain top of the ÖFB Frauen-Bundesliga by a two point margin ahead of Austria Wien, Graz remain in fourth.

Graz started the game strongly away from home at the NV Arena. St Pölten goalkeeper Carina Schlüter was forced into a strong save around the 15 minute mark to deny an opening goal. The Styrian side continued to push St Pölten but the nine-time champions soon found their stride and took charge of the fixture.

The deadlock was finally broken when Austrian youth prodigy Valentina Mädl capitalised on a scramble in the Graz goalmouth to poke the ball past Romero Grzondziel. This continued Mädl’s impressive recent form at just 18-years-old, having also bagged a goal against Barcelona in the UWCL in late November.

Starting XIs

SKN St Pölten Rush

Schlüter; Johanning, Balog, Mikolajová, Schumacher, Mädl, Mattner, Hillebrand, Touon, Pekel, Dubcová

Sportklub Sturm Graz

Romero-Grzondziel; Petersen, Keutz, Jakobsen, Maierhofer, Breznik, Wirnsberger, Riesenbeck, Brandl, Spiess, Uka

Graz punish St. Pölten to share the points

Graz had a few moments of genius as the game approached half-time. Club legend Uka found herself beyond the Pölten defence after some clever footwork. A moment of footballing brilliance followed from goalkeeper Schlüter. Two point-blank saves from Uka’s efforts in quick succession ensured that the home side kept the lead.

Melanie Brunnthaler at NV Arena, Austria. (Photo by Christian Hofer/Getty Images)

The game remained in Pölten’s control for most of the match. Just after half-time, a poor defensive moment from Pölten led to an opening for Kosovan striker Modesta Uka. The pacy forward found space to lace the open ball into the Pölten back netting.

There was anticipation of a special moment as 36-year-old Slovenian international Mateja Zver came on as a substitute. Zver is awaiting her 100th league goal. Currently sitting on 99, the midfielder will become just the fourth player to reach the landmark.

“We were not good enough in the second-half”

Valentina Mädl was quick to outline the need for better consistency.

“I think we have to be more aggressive and be more focussed in the next half of the season. This game, it just wasn’t enough, we need to be better next time.”

St Pölten now make their final preparations ahead of the mid-season break that won’t see them play domestically until February.

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With the team due to play Manchester City in the Champions League, Mädl assured the team isn’t taking for granted how well they performed last time out against the English team.

“We know that we can hurt them with our individual chances, we just have to do it better than we did today,” she said.

What comes next for the two teams?

St Pölten will travel to Manchester City for their UWCL fixture. They will be hoping to earn their first points of Group D after a strong performance against City in their last outing, losing by a narrow 3-2 margin. They head into the winter break top of the league.

Sturm Graz will now head into the Frauen Bundesliga winter break sitting fourth in the table. Their next fixture will also be against St Pölten, this time in the ÖFB Frauen Cup in February.

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