Dramatic draw after late VAR drama

After that, the visitors became more active, but rarely threatened. In the 29th minute, Alex Schlager made a strong one-on-one save against Malone, and Jatta fired the rebound over the bar. At the other end, Kitano came within inches of making it 2-0 in the 40th minute, his shot on the turn coming just wide. Despite the even statistics, we went into half-time as the better team, and the lead was certainly deserved.

Sturm came out of the dressing room with more control of the game and put our defence under pressure at times, without creating any clear-cut chances. From the 54th minute onwards, we found our way back into the game again. Kitano (58') and Frans Krätzig (62') had good opportunities. In the early May heat, a real war of attrition developed, with our lads clearly giving their all. Moussa Yeo, Karim Konate, and Edmund Baidoo brought plenty of pace to the final stages, with Konate narrowly missing a chance to seal it in the 86th minute.

What followed was pure drama. In the third minute of stoppage time, the recently substituted Kayombo found himself with too much space in our penalty area after a pass from Kiteishvili and, despite a slip, curled the ball into the far corner for an unstoppable equaliser. The game wasn't over yet though. We refused to accept that late blow and threw everything forward.

Suddenly, Yeo bundled the ball over the line after a Terzic cross, but a razor-thin offside call disallowed what could have been our winner after a lengthy VAR review.

The bitter loss of points with two matches to go takes away our chance at the title. Next Sunday we go away to LASKin our last chance to keep the pressure on the top of the table.

Views

In just these two and a half months that I've been here, we've given away so many games late on – there have been many tough moments. This one hurts particularly badly. In the end, it's fitting, as this scenario has played out at least five times before. Just seeing out those games out would practically have secured the title. As it is, we have almost no right to it.

Daniel Beichler

We started well, and had one or two chances that we should have capitalised on better. It would have been a completely different story if we'd been 2-0 up. As it was, we kept letting Graz back into the game, and they sensed that - they certainly have the necessary quality. It hurts a lot - it's a stab in the heart.

Karim Onisiwo

Match summary

Line-ups & substitutions

FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager © – Lainer, Schuster, Drexler, Krätzig – Diabate, Kitano (87. Terzic), Kjaergaard – Vertessen (74. Baidoo), Onisiwo (80. Konate), Alajbegovic (80. Yeo)

SK Sturm: Khudyakov – Gazibegovic, Mitchell (59. Koller), Vallci, Karic (73. Geyrhofer) – Hödl, Gorenc Stankovic ©, Mamageishvili (73. Kiteishvili), Fosso (73. Weinhandl) – Jatta, Malone (88. Kayombo)

Referee: Harald Lechner

**Goals:**Vertessen (22.) - Kayombo (90.+3)

Yellow cards: None - Mamageishvili (5./Foul), Trainer Ingolitsch (77./Kritik), Gazibegovic (90.+9/Foul)

Attendance: 17,318

Injury news

• Takumu Kawamura (knee), Oliver Lukic (back), Justin Omoregie (shoulder) and Valentin Sulzbacher (head) were not available for this match.