Würzburger Kickers kept it simple against Wiener in the second round of the 3. Liga at the Flyeralarm Arena on Friday. The hosts ran out 4-0 winners, with Ivan Leon Franjic doing most of the talking on the pitch. It was a clean afternoon for the local side, who had been searching for consistency after four games and just four points.
Franjic struck twice in quick succession. He found the net in the seventeenth minute and added another in the eighteenth, catching the visitors before they could settle. To be fair, Vienna looked disorganised from the opening exchanges, and those early goals made life increasingly difficult for them.
And here's the thing about minute twenty - Jordy Gillekens picked up a yellow card just as Vienna were trying to regroup. By then the hosts had already established two clear advantages, and the discipline issue only compounded what was becoming a difficult afternoon for the visitors. Philipp Hercher had already been cautioned in the sixteenth minute, showing that Vienna's approach was already under scrutiny.
T. Kraus extended the lead before the break in the thirty-eighth minute, showing the kind of movement that had been missing from Vienna's defensive shape. S. Karweina went off at half-time and was replaced by I. Allah, a change that did little to alter the trajectory of the game. Tim Kraus also picked up a yellow card in the forty-seventh minute, adding to the hosts' disciplinary tally.
The visitors never really threatened after the restart. X. Kiefersauer added a fourth in the seventy-seventh minute, and Franjic completed his hat-trick in the eighty-fourth to put the result beyond doubt. T. Kraus came off for N. Embaye in the seventy-fifth, but the damage had been done.
The statistics tell their own story. Vienna dominated possession at 57 per cent and registered 80 attacks against 74 for the hosts, yet only managed five shots on target to Würzburg's five. Two shots off target and three blocked attempts - they had the ball but not the conviction.
The result leaves Würzburg in fourteenth place with four points from four games, while Vienna sit bottom of the table with just two points. The hosts have now ground out a win after a mixed start, but Vienna are staring at the drop with two defeats and two draws already on the board. Both sides had been on different trajectories before this fixture, and the gulf in confidence was evident on the pitch.