Late shock leaves us empty-handed at Rapid

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·26 aprile 2026

Late shock leaves us empty-handed at Rapid

0-1 defeat in Vienna

What looked destined to be a goalless draw ended in a 0-1 defeat. We lost away to SK Rapid on matchday 29 of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga due to a late goal from Ercan Kara, in a game when we offered too little in attack.

It's a setback in the final stretch of the season, and a particularly bitter one at that. We have a chance though to redeem ourselves next Sunday at home against SK Sturm.

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Match summary

In beautiful spring weather at Hütteldorf's Allianz Stadium, our Red Bulls faced a Vienna side for a third time in a row, this time SK Rapid. While the hosts went into the match with a 0-2 defeat against Hartberg, we were able to draw on two victories against Austria Vienna. Coach Daniel Beichler (unsurprisingly) fielded his usual line-up, with only Stefan Lainer returning to the starting eleven after serving his yellow card suspension.

It began well as our lads took control right from the start and aggressively probed the Vienna penalty area. The first clear chance didn't take long to arrive: in the sixth minute, Jannik Schuster played a long ball directly into the path of Karim Konate, but the Ivorian didn't connect cleanly with the bouncing ball and shot well over the bar. The home side gradually found their way into the game, without putting our defence under any real pressure. Schuster & Co. stood firm as our defence allowed hardly any dangerous situations.

As a result, the pressure in our attacking play noticeably eased. The initial dominance gave way to a more balanced game, with Konate missing the best chance of the first half just before the break (42'). After a sharp cross from the wing, he failed to get a clean volley away.

After the restart, the pattern of play remained similar at first. A blocked shot from Kerim Alajbegovic in the 48th minute was the first noteworthy action of the second half, and also the most exciting of the game. At the other end, things got really dangerous in the 52nd minute: Rapid's Bolla was completely unmarked in the six-yard box, but Alex Schlager reacted quickly and stopped him pouncing. After that, it was quiet for a while at both ends of the field.

Only in the final quarter of an hour did the Viennese side noticeably increase the pressure after a quiet period, while we were increasingly forced onto the defensive. The decisive moment came in the 88th minute: we weren't determined enough, allowing substitute Kara to suddenly slot home the winning goal after an attack.

It's a painful defeat and a setback. But nothing is decided yet - next Sunday, 3 May, we host SK Sturm at the Red Bull Arena for another crucial match, and we need your support now more than ever!

get your seats now!

Views

We actually got off to a very good start, were the more active team, and had some good attacking moves. In the second half, Rapid made it harder for us to get a grip on the game, but we still had a few counter-attacking opportunities that we didn't finish cleanly enough. It wasn't our best match, but it was one that could easily have ended 0-0. Losing it late on was unnecessary and disappointing.

Daniel Beichler

Match data

Line-ups & substitutions

SK Rapid: Hedl – Cvetkovic (51. Wurmbrand), Schöller (79. Börkeeiet), Raux Yao – Bolla, Seidl ©, Amane, Ahoussou – Dahl (79. Grgic), Weimann (68. Kara) – Antiste (68. Demir) FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager – Lainer, Schuster, Drexler, Krätzig (90. Terzic) – Bidstrup © (90. Aguilar), Kitano, Kjaergaard – Vertessen (84. Redzic), Konate (57. Onisiwo), Alajbegovic (57. Yeo)

Referee: Christian-Petru Ciochirca Goal: Kara (88') Yellow cards: Cvetkovic (2./Foul), Kara (89./Unsporting behaviour) - Lainer (78./Foul) Attendance: 24.166