"Then it wouldn't have been worth it": LASK celebrates after Cup fight

That's what people want to see

In the last minute of injury time, Xavier Mbuyamba scored the much-celebrated equalizer. Two other substitutes, Moses Usor and Samuel Adeniran, secured progression in extra time.

"It was a Cup fight, just like people want to see," Didi Kühbauer aptly states after the match, emphasizing: "It was a victory of quality, will, fitness, and passion."

"Wife and child: I'm sorry"

The 120 minutes in the Cup were also draining, as Sascha Horvath describes: "If you ask me now, I have exactly zero energy."

His focus is now entirely on recovery: "Wife and child: I'm sorry, now I need to get good sleep."

"But it would have been bad if we had been eliminated after 120 minutes or in the penalty shootout. Because then none of it would have been worth it: The effort, our good game. That would have been tough," says Kühbauer.

Mentally important

But the success in the Cup derby "releases energy - even if it cost energy." Energy that LASK needs for upcoming challenges, initially against WSG and Slovan Bratislava.

Things haven't always gone smoothly recently, as captain Horvath also knows: "If you lose today's game, after the last few weeks, then it's very tough mentally. Today's win was simply well-deserved - but thank God we managed it."

With a 5:4 scoreline, you might not believe it, but the match started almost cautiously. LASK dominated play, but the Innviertel team struck coldly through Yusuf Maart (36th minute) - incidentally, his first goal in a Ried jersey.

Only then did it truly become eventful. First with an early 2:0 by Isaac Thelin and the immediate reply from Linz in the form of Joao Tornich.

"Wenn er den nicht reingehaut hätte, dann hätte ich ihn wahrscheinlich eh wieder ausgetauscht."

Didi Kühbauer über den Torschützen zum 2:3.

Maart (77th minute) made it 3:1 for Ried. "That was tough for us," Kühbauer admits.

However, substitute Robert Ljubicic breathed new belief into the Linz team with his goal, a header rebound from close range. "You could tell the team believed in something there," "Don Didi" recounts, adding with a chuckle: "If he hadn't scored that, I probably would have subbed him off again anyway."

Last-Minute Wonder Goal

Because Ljubicic did score, he remained on the field and, late in the final moments of injury time, even initiated the 3:3 equalizer - from his own corner flag. Sascha Horvath then played to Xavier Mbuyamba, who shot from over 20 meters into the corner, making it unstoppable.

"That was a wonder goal, to be honest," the LASK coach doesn't want to deny that the late equalizer also involved some luck.

After that, the outcome of the game was predictable for him: "In injury time, I knew we would win the game."

And so it happened, thanks to two more substitutes. Moses Usor scored to make it 4:3 after 111 minutes, and Samuel Adeniran sealed the deal in the 120th. Philipp Pomer's late goal brought nothing more.