Sturm Graz and Austria Vienna played out a 2:2 draw in the Austrian Bundesliga's seventh round at the Merkur Arena on Saturday. The result leaves the hosts in seventh place with eight points after seven games, while the visitors sit ninth on seven points. Both sides had chances to take all three points, but neither could find a winner.
Hofleitner gave Graz the lead in the fifteenth minute, and Fischer doubled the advantage just before half-time. By then the home side looked comfortable, and to be fair they deserved their two-goal cushion. Austria Vienna came back after the break when Italiano struck in the fifty-fifth minute.
And here's the thing about the twenty-minute mark — nothing happened on the pitch, but you could feel the shift in tempo. Graz were still controlling the game, but Vienna were finding their feet. Lee Tae-seok came on for the visitors in the seventieth minute, and within eleven minutes Kang-Hee Lee had equalised.
The substitution window around the seventy-ninth minute was busy, with four changes made by Graz and two by Vienna. Johannes Handl was pulled off for Valentino Müller, and Jacob Italiano made way for Christian Lichtenberger. Yellow cards started to accumulate, with Michorl and Sollbauer both booked near the end.
Graz had 48 per cent possession but shot more accurately, with five shots on target compared to Vienna's four. The hosts created three big chances while the visitors managed two. Graz completed 237 passes in the opposition half, but Vienna played 426 passes overall and looked more patient in build-up.
The draw keeps both clubs in the lower half of the table without moving them closer to safety or European places. Graz remain two points above Vienna, but the gap feels smaller after this result. Neither side can complain about the points they took.
We gave: away win, 42% confidence. The prediction didn't come off. The match took a different track, and Lee Tae-seok's introduction seems to have been the turning point.