The Lower Austria derby between Admira Wacker and SKN St. Pölten in the IMMOunited match of round 12 produced no winner, ending in a 2-2 draw (to the match report >>>).
Although St. Pölten were trailing for large parts of the match, Wolves head coach Cem Sekerlioglu lamented the missed victory in an ORF interview: "Given how the game played out, you have to say these are two points lost for us."
"I think we simply showed how we play football, the brand of football we bring to the pitch. Putting on a performance like that away from home, stringing together so many passes, making the opponent run like that. I think after the final whistle it was very clear to see who was still the fresher team," praised the coach regarding his players' fitness.
In the first half, Admira managed to score two goals, yet SKN was the team with more of the play. Sekerlioglu explained why they ended up in that situation: "It was simply two lapses of concentration from us."
St. Pölten comeback through successful pressing
"We dominated the game, we were just very present in our pressing. At the end of the day, we simply have to get more reward out of what we create. We only managed to do that in the second half today, simply playing the opponent until they were tired," said the St. Pölten coach.
On the other hand, Admira can be happy with a point despite their lead. The Südstadt coach, Harald Suchard, spoke of a "lucky point when all is said and done."
The coach was annoyed by the drop in performance compared to recent rounds: "Today, especially in our play on the ball, we weren't as good as in previous weeks. We failed to provide any relief."
Admira did try to defend with determination in the final minutes, but against a fresh St. Pölten side they could no longer find the necessary solutions to get on the scoresheet again.
Suchard paid respect to his opponent after the match: "St. Pölten did really, really well today. They repeatedly put us in pressure situations and, at the end of the day, got that 2-2 draw. They played very, very intensely and aggressively against our players where there was very little space."
Forst secures the point
For the Südstadt team, Justin Forst played a key role in securing the point. He contributed an assist and a dream goal.
It wasn't enough for the win, but there was praise from the coach for Forst's progress: "It was a great goal, of course. He works hard enough on these things. He knows full well that he's had a lot of chances this season. The fact that he scores goals like that as a result is great for him."
