Bundesliga Live Updates

LIVE NOW: SK Rapid vs. WSG Tirol!

(Bild: GEPA)

Round 7 of the Austrian Bundesliga: SK Rapid hosts WSG Tirol and has a chance to make its best start to a season in 28 years. We’re covering the game live—see the live updates below. The score is currently 1-0!

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With another home win, SK Rapid aims to take the lead in the three-way race for the top of the Bundesliga standings. The Viennese are hosting WSG Tirol and can overtake defending champions LASK for first place—at least until Sunday. With a win, the Hütteldorf-based team would record its best start to a season in 28 years, with 18 points from seven games. In 1998, they started the season with six wins and one draw.

“That would be a great statistic if we can pull it off. But the most important thing is that we pick up three points and keep moving in the direction we want to go,” said coach Johannes Hoff Thorup. The team will do everything it can to stay in the flow. That momentum has been particularly evident at the Allianz Stadium, with three wins and a 12-1 goal differential in their three league home games. During preseason, special attention was paid to the Tyroleans’ wing play, featuring the speedy wingers Husein Balic and Michael Olakigbe. “We’ve made our players aware of this and pointed out where we might need extra support,” explained Hoff Thorup.

Rapid has lost only one Bundesliga match against WSG so far (0–3 in December 2020), and Niklas Hedl is determined to make sure it stays that way. The goalkeeper will play his 200th competitive match for the Vienna Green-Whites on Friday. “It used to be my goal to play a game in this stadium. The fact that it’s now 200 makes me extremely proud,” said Hedl, who has long since surpassed his father, Raimund Hedl. “The way things are going right now, it’s good,” Hedl said of his team’s current form, “but we know things can change quickly. You can see in practice that we’re continuing to work hard and aren’t resting on our laurels.”

WSG Has Been Strong L
But WSG is also arriving with confidence. The Watten-based team has earned seven points from its last three games and has won its last two away matches without conceding a goal (4–0 against Austria Lustenau, 1–0 against Austria Vienna). “We’re heading in the right direction,” said coach Philipp Semlic. His team has also shown the ability to mount comebacks recently, though the 2-2 draw against Hartberg after trailing 0-2 should also serve as a wake-up call. “We saw how quickly things can go wrong if we think something will happen on its own. That was the case in the first half—we were a few percentage points short in our aggressiveness,” Semlic analyzed.

WSG Tirol is also arriving with confidence.(Bild: GEPA)

With the match in Hütteldorf, the Bundesliga is also taking a step toward greater transparency regarding the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Referee Harald Lechner will explain any VAR decisions over the stadium PA system, and the VAR footage will also be displayed on the video wall.