Vitesse Arnhem was defeated 2-1 in Austria by ten-man Rapid Vienna in the first leg of their Europa Conference League playoff tie.
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Vitesse were without the suspended Matus Bero and injured Riechedly Bazoer for the first leg, meaning Dominik Oroz and Toni Domgjoni came into the starting line-up. For Rapid Vienna, Dutch striker Ferdy Druijf started up front.
After less than a minute, Druijf had already headed the hosts in front to register his first goal for the club since joining on loan from AZ Alkmaar. After 15 minutes, it was 2-0 as Marco Grüll danced through the Vitesse defence before netting.
Vitesse then kept the score down and they thought they had pulled one back early in the second half when Adrian Grbic netted. However, the goal was wrongly disallowed for offside and there was no VAR to overturn the decision. At the other end, Druijf struck the bar.
Rapid Vienna were reduced to ten men when Filip Stojkovic saw his second yellow card and shortly afterwards, Lois Openda made it 2-1 with a strike from distance. The Belgian forward almost made it 2-2 before the end but his effort was well saved.
Vitesse takes a narrow loss back to Arnhem next week for the second leg. The bad news is that Openda will be suspended after picking up another yellow card.
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