This was the last match of this season in the Austrian Bundesliga as it was the second leg of the final of the play-offs. The winner would enter the second stage of the qualification for the UEFA Europa League which will be played in September.
The first leg ended 3-2 for Hartberg against Austria Vienna. Since the game was played in the capital of Austria and the away goal rule is active in this final, Austria Vienna would have needed at least two goals to get the overall win.
In this tactical analysis, we will discuss the tactics of the two teams and also look at the reasons why the game ended 0-0.
Line-ups
The home side got lined up by their coach Markus Schopp (who is linked with Milan) in a 4-1-4-1/4-1-3-2 (depending on the positioning of Rep) formation with René Swete between the sticks and the back four was made out of Christian Klem, Felix Luckeneder, Thomas Rotter and Andreas Lienhart. Bakary Nimaga was the only defensive midfielder and got support in the centre from Lukas Ried and Rajko Rep who also joined the lone striker frequently. Peter Tschernegg and Amadou Dante were the wingers while their best goalscorer Dario Tadić was the upfront.
On the other side, Christian Ilzer used the typical 4-2-3-1- formation with Patrick Pentz in goal. Andreas Poulsen (on loan from Bundesliga club Gladbach), Aleksandar Borkovic, Erik Palmer-Brown (loanee from Man City) and Florian Klein were the four defenders. Alexander Grünwald and Thomas Ebner played as double pivot behind Manprit Sarkaria. The two young talents Patrick Wimmer and Benedikt Pichler were the wingers while Christoph Monschein was the central forward.
Austria Vienna’s offensive approach and why it failed
Since a 0-0 would have meant that Hartberg would win that final and Austria Vienna needed to score at least two goals, everyone expected the team of Schopp to be more defensive and passive to focus on stopping the opponents from scoring goals. However, they were very active and in the first half also clearly the better side while logically it got more hectic in the second 45 minutes.
Anyways, in the first part of this tactical analysis, I want to discuss the ideas and plan of Austria Vienna which got visible during the first about 20 minutes and then explain the reasons why it failed.
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