Rapid Vienna ran out 8-0 winners against Graz AK in the Austrian Bundesliga's third round at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday. The hosts made no mistake from the opening whistle, and the visitors never found a reply. By then, anyone watching from the stands would have known the result was settled. The scoreline tells you everything about the afternoon.
I remember minute twenty clearly — the ball had not yet reached the halfway line at that point, but the damage was done. Kara opened the scoring in the fifth minute, and Adamsen added a third before the quarter-hour mark. And here's the thing: Graz never recovered from that early burst, not once.
Cvetkovic made it 4-0 just before the break, and Adamsen struck twice in stoppage time to finish the half. Hofleitner and Smits came off together for Graz at the interval, a change that did not alter the balance. The visitors had nothing to do all evening after the first twenty minutes.
Demir added a fifth goal in the fifty-sixth minute, and Graz made three changes around the hour mark. Koch, Amane and Dahl all came on, but the visitors refused to go away without a fight. They dug in, but the goals kept coming.
Adamsen completed his hat-trick in the seventy-fourth minute and added two more before the end. Kara and Demir were both replaced in the final ten minutes, and the visitors' goalkeeper made eight saves. The statistics showed the truth: 24 shots on target against 2, and possession split 72 to 28.
Rapid Vienna sit third in the table with 12 points from five games, having won four and lost once. Graz AK remain tenth with just four points, their form showing three defeats and one draw. The gap between them is now eight points, and the visitors have not won in three matches.
This was not a game decided by luck, but by the quality of the opening exchanges. Eight goals do not happen without a plan being executed properly.