Viennese waltz for Austria
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Article summary
FK Austria Wien 5-1 FC Shakhtar Donetsk Thorstein Helstad's late double humbles Shakhtar.
Article body
FK Austria Wien 5-1 FC Shakhtar Donetsk
Shakhtar opener
The Austrians, who have lost once in ten outings to stand top of the Bundesliga standings, had to come from a goal behind after Olexiy Bielik opened the scoring after 16 minutes. Shakhtar's goal owed much to Gennadiy Zubov's skill as he countered quickly to find Bielik, who in turn beat Thomas Mandl in Austria's goal.
Janocko double
However, two goals in quick succession from Austria's Slovakian international Vladimír Janocko after 31 and 35 minutes put the home side ahead to stay. Janocko equalised when he lobbed the ball into the left corner of the net after his initial free-kick came off the wall. He then added a second when Radoslaw Gilewicz dribbled along the right flank before playing a low pass to Janocko who made no mistake from seven metres. Djalminha then extended Austria's lead on the stroke of half time when he beat Wojciech Kowalewski from the spot with a penalty reminiscent of Antonín Panenka's famous 1976 UEFA European Championship final winner for Czechoslovakia. Taking one step forward, he waited for the goalkeeper to commit himself before chipping the ball into the net beyond where the keeper had been standing.
Zubov dismissed
Worse was to follow for Shakhtar when Zubov saw red four minutes after the interval following a horrible challenge on Ernst Dospel. Nonetheless, although reduced to ten men, Shakhtar desperately sought to reduce the deficit, only to allow fast counter attacks from the Austrian side which played into the hands of the speedy Gilewicz and Janocko.
Shakhtar punished
But punishment for the Ukrainians only came in the last five minutes as Helstad profited from some slack defending. First, Thomas Flögel won possession deep inside the Shakhtar half before finding Helstad on the edge of the five metre box, and he made no mistake with a low shot past Kowalewski after 85 minutes. Then two minutes later, a carbon copy of Helstad's first strike followed, on this occasion courtesy of Janocko's perfectly-weighted through ball.
