Blau-Weiß Linz defeats Altach and moves closer to staying in the league

Altach missed the opportunity to secure their stay in the league early. The Vorarlbergers remain second in the qualifying group. Ognjen Zaric’s team continues with what is probably the most important performance of the season. Next Friday Altach will play in the final against LASK in Klagenfurt for the ÖFB Cup trophy.

In the third game within seven days, Köllner wanted to bring fresh energy to the wing positions with David Bumberger and Isak Dahlqvist at Blau-Weiß. Top scorer Patrick Greil was missing from the Altach team due to a calf injury; Moritz Oswald played more offensively in his place. After a little more than ten minutes, Zaric had to worry about the next offensive man. Ousmane Diawara and Fabio Varesi-Strauss clashed heads in an aerial duel. The Altacher, like the Linz defender, was able to continue playing with a turban.

Linzers reward themselves after a break

After the 3-0 win against WAC, the home team acted with self-confidence and looked for a way to the goal. Altach came closer to a goal in the first half hour through turban wearer Diawara, who shot past the goal (18th). In a game that became more and more disjointed by the minute, Blue and White had a real opportunity to take the lead until the half-time whistle. After an advance from Dahlqvist, Ronivaldo crossed for Bumberger, who only hit Altach’s Sandro Ingolitsch from ten meters (42′).

Blue-White picked up again after the break. Altach had problems launching an orderly build-up to the game. The Linzers finally rewarded themselves with a double blow. Once again Altach lost the ball during the build-up, Seidl dived a cross from Nico Maier into the net with a spectacular diving header. The VAR revised the original offside decision. Shortly afterwards, Ronivaldo shot powerfully from just outside the penalty area to make it 2-0. For last year’s top scorer, it was his ninth goal of the season.

Things went quiet in the 78th minute when the game had to be interrupted due to a medical emergency involving the assistant referee. The referee returned from the dressing room shortly afterwards. The Altachers threw everything forward again. Substitute Srdjan Hrstic hit the bottom of the crossbar in the 90th minute before Reiter made everything clear with a well-placed finish into the top corner. Blue-White remained without conceding a goal for the fourth game in a row.