The mood in Hütteldorf was at its peak in the 76th minute of the 2-0 victory against Trabzonspor, when Matthias Seidl scored the 1-0. The captain cheered: “The feeling was extremely cool. Also that it happened right in front of the West Block. You can really feel the stadium.”
Seidl sees the performance shown in the victory against Trabzonspor but as an order: “Now we want to go into the Europa League.“
The opponent in the play-off will be even stronger: the Portuguese top team Braga won the 3rd qualifying round against Servette Geneva 2:1 (0:0 in the first leg). The away game is next Thursday, the home game on August 29th at 9 p.m.
After the third home win this season (Wisla Krakow, Sturm) Seidl more: “We will now go into the next games with a lot of self-confidence.”
Bulwark with Raux-Yao and Hedl
The stability in defence also ensures self-confidence: “We are conceding very little at the moment. Serge (Anm. Raux-Yao) has every ball. And if something does get through, we have the Niki (Anm. Hedl).“
The mentioned Keeper sees the first goal of the season achieved: “It feels extremely good. Rapid belongs to Europa. Last year we came close against Florence. Now a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”
Trainer Robert Klauss: “We are happy that we made it to the play-offs. We are also very happy about the way we won.”
The coach also spoke about the perfect course of the game: “The goal for the 1-0 came, as in the first leg, exactly in the right moment. Before that we had a phase that wasn’t so good.”
Klauß quickly denied that the victory was the most emotional in his time at Rapid: “That was the 3:0 im Derby against the Austria.”
On Sunday, Rapid in the Bundesliga WSG Tyrol“I’m happy with the development so far. But now it’s about consistency. On Sunday we have to take the next step with three points.”