Ried v Austria Lustenau

The two teams experienced contrasting fortunes on the opening day of the season: Ried narrowly lost 1-0 to Rapid Vienna despite hitting the woodwork multiple times, while promoted Lustenau marked their long-awaited return to Austria’s top table after a 22-year absence with a 2-1 home win over WSG Tirol. The Vorarlbergers have only ever spent three seasons in the Austrian Bundesliga, with those coming around the turn of the millennium.

The Vikings, who are now winless in eight league matches, will be looking to swiftly reverse their fortunes – but will have to do so without central midfielder Nikola Stosic, who is set for a long absence on the sidelines after rupturing his cruciate ligament in the capital at the weekend. Right-back Matthias Gragger is still suffering from adductor problems and is expected to miss out as well. The Vorarlbergers, meanwhile, do not have any fresh injury concerns and are only missing long-term absentees Daniel Tiefenbach and Adriel, who both play in midfield.

But while the recent form favours the visitors, history certainly bodes well for the hosts: Ried are unbeaten in their 12 top-tier meetings with Lustenau, recording six victories and six draws against the Vorarlbergers. That all makes this one rather hard to call, so we’re instead backing both teams to score. After all, Ried have not kept a clean sheet in seven league games and Austria Lustenau have only ever done so once away from home in the top flight!

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Altach v Wolfsberg

Neither team had the start they were hoping for on Matchday 1, although Wolfsberg will have come away marginally more satisfied: while Altach lost yet again to bogey side Hartberg, Wolfsberg held last season’s runners-up Sturm Graz to a draw – with Konstantin Kerschbaumer scoring a wonderful goal from outside the penalty area – and might well have won had they converted a first-half penalty or been able to capitalise on their opponents going down to 10 men with a quarter of an hour to go.

Altach boss Miroslav Klose, who has previously coached the German national team as an assistant and worked in the Bayern youth set-up, is currently in his first role as a senior head coach. He does not have any injury problems to contend with at this stage of the season, but the same cannot be said of his opposite number Robin Dutt, who is still waiting for left-back Jonathan Scherzer and midfielder Ervin Omic to return from injuries sustained in pre-season.

Wolfsberg won both their matches last season against Altach, who claimed only two wins on home turf all campaign and had one of the worst home records in the division. We think that makes Wolfsberg, who played Italian champions AC Milan in a friendly in midweek, the favourites and so our recommendation is to back the Wolves on a draw no bet.  

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Sturm Graz v Red Bull Salzburg

With Salzburg currently in pursuit of a 10^th consecutive title – a feat only previously achieved by a handful of European clubs – the words ‘title race’ are not bandied about too often in Austrian football circles. But this Sturm Graz side – managed by talented coach Christian Ilzer and spearheaded by young Dane Rasmus Højlund – are about the closest thing the Red Bulls have to a challenger. They finished as runners-up last term, 15 points behind the runaway winners.

Sturm Graz will be without three important players for this crunch clash: centre-back David Affengruber was sent off in the opening-day draw with Wolfsberg, while creative outlets Otar Kiteishvili and Jakob Jantscher are not yet fit. The absence of Jantscher, their top scorer last season with 14 goals, is an especially big blow. Salzburg, who beat Austria Vienna 3-0 in the season curtain-raiser, came through their subsequent 1-0 friendly win against Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool unscathed and with no new injury problems.

Salzburg tend to dominate meetings between the two teams but Sturm Graz will take a glimmer of hope from the fact that they beat their rivals towards the end of last season – although in reality, that was likely because Matthias Jaissle’s team were not at full throttle, having already wrapped up the title. While we usually tip Salzburg to win, in this case both teams to score might be a safer bet. Sturm have scored in their last 10 home games with Salzburg, who themselves only failed to find the net in two games last term.

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