“Antwerp and LASK are similar”

After the emotional roller coaster, even the coach became martial in his choice of words. “With a 4: 1 score we wanted to kill the opponent and we almost killed ourselves,” LASK coach Dominik Thalhammer said after the dramatic 4: 3 Europa League win against Ludogorez Razgrad on Thursday.

Because on the way to their first group stage win this year, the Linz team almost gave up a comfortable 4: 1 lead. “We delivered an absolutely superior performance for 70 minutes,” said Thalhammer, who saw the joy of the great performance marred by “naive” minutes. He was not alone in that. “The opponent was cracked and we brought him back into the game ourselves, that bothers me a little bit,” said head of defense Gernot Trauner.

Within minutes, the Bulgarian series champion was back in the game thanks to his triple pack shooter Elvis Manu (15, 67, 73), twice after the goalkeeper’s shots. The defensive action before the hand penalty, which led to 4: 3, also saw the yellow-red and the dismissal for Lukas Grgic. Suddenly, LASK’s seventh home win in the ninth game on the European stage since the 2019/20 season wanted to be fought again.

The coach specified what had failed in his opinion: “It was not our offensive behavior, but our behavior in possession of the ball that conceded the goals.” Thalhammer recognized the potential for learning in the areas of game control and residual defense. “We put too many players in the area because we wanted to play again for the next goal.”

LASK kept a cool head against Ludogorez

There was no total loss of control. “Then we defended him well and we didn’t allow anything,” said Thalhammer, who also saw a lot of positives. “There were a lot of very good things that we worked for and that we can play in high numbers internationally.”

Husein Balic (2nd), Andreas Gruber (12th) and Marko Raguz (35th), as well as a deflected double shot by Balic, which was counted as an own goal, contributed three points, which means that there is much open in the Group J. Royal Antwerp has split by three points after a surprising 1-0 home win over Tottenham. Next Tuesday, LASK in Belgium will have the first part of the double duel. Thalhammer: “I think it will be very even and the game will be key.”

Razgrad coach Stanislaw Gentschew spoke of a well-deserved victory for the Upper Austrians. With the Belgians he also had painful experiences (1: 2). “Antwerp and LASK are similar. They both play with three defenders, both are aggressive and are on an equal footing,” explained Gentschew.

Europa League: Group J table