Austria kept their European hopes alive with impressive 3:0 away win over Hartberg. The visitors dominated from the off, while at the same time Hartberg played one of their poorest games and the combination of the two led to this easy win.

Austria dominated from the off, while Hartberg’s midfielders were very poor and they kept surrendering possession cheaply. Early on Djuricin tested Hartberg’s keeper’s reflexes, with Swete also doing well to keep out Wimmer’s shot.

Djuricin missed 2 more good chances as the half progressed and he was constant threat as Hartberg’s defenders never managed to deal with him. Eventually the logical happened when Djuricin’s cross saw Wimmer breaking the deadlock.

Hartberg didn’t have any scoring chances in the first half, but shortly after the break they had strong shout for penalty that was ignored.

Austria remained the dominant side though and early in the second period Fitz made it 2:0 with elegant lob over Swete. After this goal Hartberg collapsed for about 10 minutes but missed sitters from all of Djuricin, Sarkaria and Wimmer somehow prevented further damage.

Hartberg finally started to play better inside the final 20 minutes when both Tadic and Rep were close to scoring, but just as it seemed the hosts would give themselves late hope Austria hit them on counterattack and Pichler decided the match.

The season is now over for Hartberg, with the Blues disappointing for not making it to Europe this campaign. Austria on the other hand still believe and they will throw everything in the coming double-header vs. Wolfsberger.