Despite exclusion

LIVE: Let’s go with the 347th Vienna Derby!

Cheers at Wiener Austria - the 347th Vienna derby against SK Rapid has been won!(Bild: GEPA)

Austria won the 347th Vienna derby at the Allianz Stadium 3-1, inflicting Rapid's first defeat of the season at national level! Lee Tae-Seok (24'), Abubakr Barry (49') and Noah Botic (59') fired the Violets to their fourth win in a row and fifth place, with Claudy Mbuyi (48' / penalty) conceding a goal. Rapid now lead the table by just two points ahead of Sturm Graz, but the Styrians have a game in hand.

In the last derby without away fans, Green-White started under pressure, driven on by 26,000 fans. Mbuyi had a great chance to take the lead as early as the fourth minute, but failed to beat Austria goalkeeper Samuel Sahin-Radlinger on a counter-attack after being played in by Nikolaus Wurmbrand.

It took the visitors around ten minutes to get halfway out of their grip and they made their first attacking appearance when Botic's shot was saved by Niklas Hedl (14th minute). The ball remained mostly in Rapid's ranks after that, but they did little with it - it only became dangerous when space presented itself, such as when Andrija Radulovic had a chance defused by Sahin-Radlinger (22').

Lee scored from a transition situation
Austria then benefited from a transition situation virtually on the counter-attack. Johannes Eggestein played Lee free, Wurmbrand, who was rushing back, stumbled as he tried to save and the South Korean scored dryly into the far corner. The goal was initially disallowed due to an alleged offside, but was correctly awarded after VAR intervention. After that, the Hütteldorfer only caused dicey situations with high balls into the box until the break. A header from Mbuyi flew over the crossbar (31'), while Sahin-Radlinger was on hand to save another header from the striker (36').

The second half began to Rapid's liking. Wurmbrand was brought down in the penalty area after contact with Barry and Mbuyi converted the penalty. The cheers in the stadium had barely died down when it was already 2:1 to Austria. The home side, obviously still euphoric from the equalizer and therefore unfocused, allowed an attack by their arch-rivals to get rolling. Barry took an assist from Eggestein in the sixteen and shot into the near corner, only for Hedl to clear the ball behind the goal line.

Barry with goal and assist after penalty foul
Barry's next big performance came in the 59th minute. The Gambian raced down the right and played a pinpoint pass to the middle, which the completely free-standing Botic effortlessly converted for his first league goal. Rapid looked dismayed and were even lucky not to fall further behind - Sanel Saljic just missed the far corner (68').

When Philipp Wiesinger was shown the red card for robbing a goal after a foul on Janis Antiste (73'), there was a brief glimmer of hope in the Rapid camp. But Sahin-Radlinger tamed Bendeguz Bolla's free-kick and then had no difficult ball to hold. Rapid were unable to add to their tally and thus made a false start to a demanding week, which sees them face Lech Poznan away in the Conference League on Thursday and Red Bull Salzburg away in the league on Sunday.