They returned with completely satisfied faces Austrians home from Romania on Friday. The 2-1 win against Beitar Jerusalem In the first leg of Q3 in the Conference League there was balm on the violet soul after the 0-3 false start against WAC in the Bundesliga. The two youngsters Vasilije Markovic (18) and Sanel Saljic (20) turned the game around with their dream goals and opened the door to the play-offs. Before the second leg on Thursday, the league still has a hit against champions LASK on Sunday.
What the Violets took away from the trip to Romania besides the victory:
The findings
“One thing I saw against Beitar was that the whole team was committed to our path,” revealed Coach Stephan Helm. What does he mean by that? Austria rotates well from game to game, and the young players also get enough playing time. Helm: “And it’s just the case that every player who is on the pitch has to live up to the responsibility in his role.” In short: everyone is pulling in the same direction.
The coach also sees the clear increase in performance after the break as positive. “It is statistically proven that we often achieve positive results after the break.” One of the things that turned things around against the Israelis was the switch to a back four. “That’s certainly one of the team’s strengths, that they have a certain flexibility to change things.”
Another insight from the European Cup is fitness. “It’s obvious that we have a fit team,” praises the coach. Postscript: “And yet we still have to ask ourselves what we can do better right from the start.”
Defensive veteran Aleksandar Dragovic celebrated his comeback – with head protection. The coach emphasized that he could also give Ibrahim Buhari and Johannes Handl more and more minutes. In addition, striker Johannes Eggestein could be ready for action again by Sunday.
The transfer market
Also Sports director Tomas Zorn was satisfied after the Violets’ successful performance. “We can catch up and we’ve seen that the coach can still influence the game,” he said, referring to the tactical changes. There is great hope that we will make it to the play-offs. However, Zorn has to dampen hopes for new arrivals. At the moment we are not “economically capable enough to bring in reinforcements from outside”. In plain language this means: There will only be a new player if another player is sold first. But it doesn’t look like that in the next few days.