Comments on the matchday

Ilzer: “The best draw of the season”

Sturm coach Christian Ilzer(Bild: Sepp Pail)

While Sturm Graz managed to salvage a 1-1 draw against TSV Hartberg, LASK celebrated a 2-0 win against Austria Klagenfurt on Sunday. Find out what the coaches of both games had to say after the final whistle here.

Peter Pacult (Klagenfurt coach): 
"If you look at the 90 minutes, more would have been possible for us. But unfortunately luck wasn't on our side this time, when I think that Nicolas Wimmer and Sinan Karweina only hit the crossbar and the bar respectively. We were just centimeters off the mark. But that's soccer. It was also a shame that we set up the goals ourselves. But LASK were not only more efficient, they also have a certain quality. But we've never conceded as little as we did today against Linz."

(Bild: GEPA)

Thomas Darazs (LASK coach): 
"The bottom line is that it was a deserved win because we were the more dangerous, or as I would say, the more mature team over 90 minutes. We wanted to avoid set-pieces, which we didn't always manage. Nevertheless, I never had the feeling that we could get into trouble. We knew that we could take a big step towards third place and the European Cup. We played accordingly cleverly."

Christian Ilzer (Sturm coach): 
"A really tough fight, an ultimate challenge for us. It was a razor's edge between 1:1 and 0:2. During the break, it was all about one thing: getting the belief back into our heads that we are capable of correcting the result even when outnumbered and under pressure. I don't think we've lost any of the five games we've played short-handed. That's a sign of an incredible mentality. It's probably the best draw of the season."

Markus Schopp (Hartberg coach): 
"We were lucky at the start of the game, then got into the game better and took the lead with the first good action. We didn't manage to put the lid on it. We'll take the point and go into the next two rounds looking to pick up more points (against Salzburg and Rapid). Efficiency would be important to win against the big teams too." On the superior numbers: "It's not so easy to play against a team that has great individual quality and can achieve great things this year."