UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE MATCHDAY 1: LASK 2-2 DJURGÅRDENS

Markus Schopp’s men went into their opening game of the campaign in Europe’s tertiary competition – in which the traditional group stages have been abandoned in favour of a new-look league phase, with all 36 participating clubs in one league table – on the back of a good away point against Rapid Vienna in the Bundesliga at the weekend. Their opponents Djurgårdens, who hail from Sweden’s capital Stockholm, qualified for the league phase by beating Progrès Niederkorn of Luxembourg, Ilves of Finland and Slovenians Maribor but fell 10 points adrift of Allsvenskan leaders Malmö following a draw against lowly Värnamo on Sunday.

The match got off to a tough start for the Upper Austrians, who were forced to make a change in the eighth minute after Moses Usor’s left leg got stuck in the turf down the right flank. Florian Flecker came on in his stead and LASK started to grow into the game, matching their opposition’s quick counter-pressing and one-touch passing play. But chances were few and far between until the 26th minute, when Berisha fired LASK into the lead. The Sweden-born midfielder beat Djurgårdens keeper Oscar Jansson, who had come racing off his line, to a diagonal ball that right-back Adam Ståhl had opted to leave, turned at speed and skilfully lobbed the shot-stopper from a tight angle to open the scoring!

LASK were largely untroubled in the period after they scored for a club-record 13th European home game in succession but breathed a sigh of relief when the Kazakh linesman raised his flag in the 32nd minute with Oscar Fallenius clean through on goalkeeper Jörg Siebenhandl, who made a strong save regardless. The home side almost doubled their lead three minutes before the break when Marin Ljubičić cut inside Miro Tenho and struck a powerful effort at goal that curled narrowly past the right post of Jansson’s goal. It was to be the final action of note in a first half that LASK deserved to finish with their noses narrowly in front.

The second half got off to a fast-paced start with chances at both ends: Ljubičić fired into the side-netting seconds after the break after latching onto a through-ball from George Bello, before Philipp Ziereis made a critical block to keep out a shot from Besard Sabovic with Siebenhandl beaten. It proved to be a highly consequential intervention as LASK doubled their lead soon afterwards: Ljubičić played a perfectly weighted through-ball into the path of substitute Flecker, who rounded Jansson in the Djurgårdens goal and slotted into the bottom corner with pinpoint precision from an almost impossibly tight angle (50’).

Schopp subsequently made a triple substitution – with René Renner, Maximilian Entrup and Melayro Bogarde coming on for Bello, Berisha and Flecker – and Djurgårdens halved the deficit shortly afterwards: Gustav Wikheim cut the ball back from the byline on the right and found centre-forward August Priske, who hammered home three minutes shy of the hour mark (57’). The Swedes almost restored parity five minutes later with Rasmus Schüller finding Tokmac Nguen, who drew a great save from Siebenhandl from point-blank range. Nguen did get the better of Siebenhandl seconds later, however; the Norwegian was afforded plenty of space to pick out the bottom corner of the LASK goal (65’).

But despite the quick-fire comeback, LASK still harboured hopes of a win in Markus Schopp’s coaching debut in European competition proper. Entrup drew a strong save from Jansson with a powerful strike on the turn and Sascha Horvath saw his volley expertly blocked by the chest of Tenho. Ultimately, though, neither they nor their Swedish visitors could grab a late winner and the spoils were shared. The Linzers will next be in European action when they travel south to face Olimpija Ljubljana on 24 October. Before that, they will face Austria Klagenfurt and WSG Tirol in the Bundesliga either side of the international break.

The line-ups

LASK: Siebenhandl; Stojković, Ziereis, Jovičić, Talovierov, Bello (Renner, 55’); Berisha (Entrup, 55’), Horvath, Usor (Flecker, 8’; Bogarde, 55’); Ljubičić, Žulj © (Boateng, 70’)

Substitutes: Jungwirth, Schrenk; Galvez, Pintor, Tibidi
Yellow cards: Stojković (21’)
Goals: Berisha (26’), Flecker (50’)

Djurgårdens: Jansson; Ståhl (Therkildsen, 60’), Tenho, Une Larsson, Bergh; Eriksson ©, Sabovic (Schüller, 60’); Wikheim (Tokmac Nguen, 60’), Gulliksen, Fallenius (Haarala, 60’); Priske (Deniz Hümmet, 76’)

Substitutes: Rinne, Croon, Radetinac, Stensson, Kosugi
Yellow cards: Toprak Nguen (74’)
Goals: Priske (57’), Tokmac Nguen (65’)

Author: The Other Bundesliga