This weekend marks the start of the new Austrian Bundesliga season and Saturday afternoon features the clash between Rapid Vienna and Hartberg at the Allianz Stadium with hosts, Rapid Vienna, looking to open their account on home soil.
Rapid Vienna will be in confident mood after securing a midweek 2-1 win in the 1st leg of their 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League over Czech Republic outfit, Sparta Prague, which extended Rapid’s unbeaten run in all competitions to seven games overall.
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Five pre-season games includes the most notable 1-0 home win over Danish counterparts, Copenhagen, while Rapid Vienna have hit the ground running in their two competitive matches to date.
A comprehensive 6-0 thrashing of Wiener Viktoria in the Austrian OFB Stiegel Cup was followed by the aforementioned 2-1 home win against Sparta Prague.
Results and form at home in the Bundesliga have also been steady as Rapid Vienna have lost just two of their last 10 matches overall, which includes seven wins and a resounding 4-0 victory against Hartberg in their previous meeting.
Hartberg ended the regular Austrian top flight season in 7th place which meant they had to drop into the Relegation Round group when the Bundesliga split into two in the second phase of the season.
Hartberg finished top of the Relegation Group three points clear of 2nd placed Austria Vienna who also qualified for the Europa Conference League play-offs and whom eventually would go onto beat Hartberg 3-0 in the play-off final, taking their place in this season’s Europa Conference League competition.
It was therefore a narrow miss for European football for Hartberg and they’ll be looking to improve upon last season’s 7th place finish this time around, especially after producing a reasonable string of results towards the end of last season’s campaign.
Hartberg suffered just two defeats from their previous 10 matches overall (both of which were against Austria Vienna), but the visitors will probably need to make further improvements on the road if they’re to secure a top six finish this season.
Hartberg managed to pick up just two wins out of their last six matches on their travels which were at Admira and St Polten, who finished bottom and second from bottom respectively in the Relegation Group.
Rapid Vienna have won the previous two meetings on the trot against Hartberg, 4-0 and 3-1 respectively, and the hosts look in good shape to open their account here as well.