Derby winners LASK delighted by "thrilling drama"

LASK secured crucial points in the title race with a 4-2 victory over SV Ried (match report >>>).

The match remained wide open until late on, before Usor and Danek scored the winning goals in the dying minutes.

In his post-match interview with Sky, LASK head coach Kühbauer praised his players' winning mentality: "I have to give the team huge credit because it's not the first time they've fallen behind and still managed to win the game in the end. That shows a really great attitude and mentality."

"They can do better than that"

However, the Burgenland native was not entirely satisfied with his Linz side. After the 15th minute, LASK shifted into game-management mode and did less and less to drive the game forward. That almost backfired in the final result.

"We took things a bit too lightly after that. That shouldn't happen. I know what they are capable of. What they played after the 15th minute, they can do better than that," he criticized his team.

Two-time assist provider Sasa Kalajdzic agreed with his manager: "A derby is always special, but we didn't need to make life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves."

Asked about his personal performance, the ÖFB striker expressed his satisfaction. Kalajdzic feels comfortable with all of his teammates in the LASK attack and adapts his game to his colleagues accordingly: "Like I said, it depends on how the manager sets us up. I try to set up my teammates, or they set me up. We recognize our strengths and need to complement each other."

Emotional final minutes

The intensity of the Upper Austria derby brought emotional relief in the closing stages: "The drama makes it even sweeter. When you score to make it 3-2 just before the end of the match, everything erupts – emotionally. And Christoph's goal for 4-2 was the icing on the cake."

On Friday evening, Rapid further consolidated top spot in the league with a resounding 6-0 win over WAC (match report >>>). LASK's eight-point deficit behind Rapid did not increase following their victory in the Upper Austria derby.

For coach Didi Kühbauer, that gap is currently not a concern: "Looking at Rapid isn't our primary goal right now; we are focusing on our own games. Those are the ones we can influence, we can't influence anything else."

Only ten players in training

The coming weeks will present a challenge of a different kind. Thanks to the top performances of the LASK players, many have been called up to their national teams. As a result, Kühbauer is facing a shortage of personnel: "This week I'll be training with ten players, you can't work on tactical concepts like that."

"Of course we will also use the time to recover, that's clear, but I really have very few players available right now. On the one hand, it's confirmation of the performances of my boys who are away with various national teams, but on the other hand, as a coach, you always prefer to have everyone together."