Austria Klagenfurtvs.Rapid Vienna

The home side suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat to Wolfsberger in their opening league fixture, while the visitors secured a 1-0 victory against reigning champions Sturm Graz.

Match preview

After a disastrous start to the campaign, Austria Klagenfurt find themselves at the bottom of the Austrian Bundesliga table with the worst goal difference.

Die Violetten will be eager to bounce back and replicate last season's regular season performance, which saw them qualify for the Championship Round.

Still chasing their first league title, the Carinthian outfit are not currently looking like serious contenders, but manager Peter Pacult will be hoping to secure a European place at the end of the season.

Klagenfurt enjoyed a solid pre-season, winning three and drawing one of their six matches, before comfortably defeating Regionalliga Ost side Gloggnitz 5-0 in the Austrian Cup first round.

Replicating this form will be crucial for the home side as they host Rapid Vienna, but they must end a three-match winless streak against the visitors to achieve this.

However, hosts have a poor record against visitors at home, winning just one of six matches while losing three and drawing two.

Rapid Vienna travelled to Turkey last Thursday for the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie and secured a 1-0 victory, putting them in a strong position to progress.

It was another hard-fought win for the Rapidler, who had already opened their Austrian Bundesliga campaign with a famous home victory over the reigning champions.

Rapid Vienna have now won all five competitive matches since the start of the new season, including victories over Wisla Krakow in the Europa League and Neusiedl in the Austrian Cup, scoring 12 goals and conceding just two.

As the most successful club in Austrian top-flight history with 32 titles, Rapid Vienna are always considered title favourites, but they have not lifted the trophy since 2007-08.

Manager Robert Klauss will be hoping to end this 16-year drought, and their early-season form offers some encouragement, but he knows it is still early days and they must maintain their momentum.

Austria Klagenfurt Austrian Bundesliga form:

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L

L

L

L

L

Austria Klagenfurt form (all competitions):

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L

L

W

L

L

Rapid Vienna Austrian Bundesliga form:

L

L

W

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L

W

Rapid Vienna form (all competitions):

L

D

W

W

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W

Team News

Klagenfurt will head into this clash without 18-year-old midfielder Bego Kujrakovic, who has a cruciate ligament tear and is expected to be out for a long time.

Laurenz Dehl scored the only goal in the opening day loss and he could be in contention to be part of the XI for this fixture.

Rapid Vienna will remain without Thierry Gale and Bernhard Zimmermann, who are both sidelined with cruciate ligament tears.

Ismail Seydi and Ferdy Druijf are both sidelined with knee injuries, while new signing Jakob Scholler is a fitness doubt.

Austria Klagenfurt possible starting lineup:

Knaller; Gezos, Mahrer, Szerencsi, Kuhn; Cvetko, Koch, Bonnah; Bobzien, Binder, Wydra

Rapid Vienna possible starting lineup:

Hedl; Bolla, Cvetkovic, Raux-Yao, Auer; Sangare, Grgic; Jansson, Seidl; Burgstaller, Beljo

We say: Austria Klagenfurt 1-2 Rapid Vienna

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