Hartberg

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Bundesliga

Round 18

Hartberg 1 - 1 Ried

2021-02-20 16:00 More Reports

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Bundesliga

Round 16

Hartbergvs. WSG Swarovski Tirol

2021-02-23 17:30 More Previews

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Season Guide

2020/2021

Hartberg

In

Manfred Gollner (def) (Wolsfberger AC), Philipp Sturm (mid) (Chemnitzer FC), Alexander Burgstaller (def) (Rapid Wien II), Julius Ertlthaler (mid) (SV Mattersburg), Stefan Goles (def) (Wolsfberger AC), Borna Petrovic (att) (Dinamo Zagreb), Felix Luckeneder (def) (LASK), Samson Tijani (mid) (RB Salzburg), Hamidou Maiga (def), Maximilian Pußwald (gk) (Harberg II), Manuel Pfeifer (def) (SV Allerheiligen)

Out

Sandro Gotal (sp) (att) (released), Manuel Pfeifer (def) (Lafntiz II), Christoph Kropfl (sp) (def) (SV Lafnitz), Siegfried Rasswalder (sp) (def) (ESV Knittelfeld), Peter Tschernegg (sp) (mid) (Grazer AK 1902), Jodel Dossou (r) (mid) (Clermont Foot), Marcel Schantl (def) (Blau Weiss Linz), David Cancola (r) (mid) (released), Tomas Ostrak (mid) (MFK Karvina), Amadou Dante (sp) (mid) (Sturm Graz)

Widely expected to suffer from the second season syndrome after their struggles in the second half of the 2018/19 campaign, Hartberg made a mockery of such predictions by finishing fifth and qualifying for Europe via the play-offs. A rather small club, they have performed admirably since winning promotion to the top flight a couple of years ago and the big positive for them going into the new campaign is that they managed to keep hold of both of their highly-rated boss Markus Schopp and striker Dario Tadic, who had a superb campaign last time around. In fact, the sole two players of any importance to have left are Jodel Dossou, who will continue his career in France, and David Cancola, who could not agree a contract extension. The other players to have left hardly featured last season, either due to their manager's choice or due to injury issues. On the other side, several interesting signings have been made in Julius Ertlthaler, Manfred Gollner and Stefan Goles, while Felix Luckender has had his deal made permanent after spending the previous season on loan with the club. Hartberg can only stay up for years if they are well run and follow a model based on stability and this is something that they have definitely done well so far. They have not changed much over the summer and will be hoping for another successful season.

Target

Despite qualifying for Europe last time around, Hartberg will be pleased as long as they manage to keep themselves comfortably away from danger.

Season Review

2019/2020

№5: Hartberg

After enduring an abysmal second half of the previous campaign and not strengthening over the summer, Hartberg were widely seen as one of the main candidates to go down. The board opted to stick with Markus Schopp despite the decline in form and time proved that was the right decision, as his side stayed true to his counter-attacking principles and went on to surpass all expectations and finish the regular season inside the top half. With automatic survival achieved, Hartberg were widely expected to lose their focus in the Championship Group, having already met their goal for the season. However, they kept defying expectations and went on to produce a number of superb away displays, with all of their away games in the Championship Group, bar the one at Salzburg, seeing them claim wins. This was enough for them to finish fifth and set up a play-off clash versus Austria, which they won 3:2 on aggregate, having won away and drawn at home. This means that the small club, who spent the majority of their history below the third tier, will be playing in Europe next season. All in all, obviously a wildly successful season for Hartberg. They had no right to finish as high as they did, given the quality of their side, and time will tell for how long they can keep this up.