Austria’s World Cup qualifier delayed after sinkhole appears on pitch

Saturday’s World Cup qualifier between Austria and Cyprus was delayed after a sinkhole opened up on the pitch during the second half.

The fixture was paused in the 75th minute at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz, Austria — home of top-flight side LASK — after a sinkhole the size of a football was discovered on the edge of the home team’s penalty area.

Footage showed Austria goalkeeper Alexander Schlager pulling large clumps of turf out of the hole as referee Jakob Kehlet stopped play.

Ground staff entered the pitch with a bucket to repair the hole, with the assistance of Schlager.

Play resumed, with 10 minutes of stoppage time added at the end of the second half.

It was not the first time a sinkhole had appeared in the playing surface during an Austria fixture. In June 2022, a sinkhole appeared in the centre circle shortly after full time of Austria’s Nations League game against Denmark at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.

Austria won Saturday’s fixture 1-0 following Marcel Sabitzer’s 54th-minute penalty. The result left Ralph Rangnick’s side second in Group H, three points behind leaders Bosnia and Herzegovina with a game in hand.

“In the end, what matters is that we got the three points,” Austria head coach Rangnick said at full time. “It became clear early on that it wouldn’t be an easy game. We made too many mistakes in the first half, we were too imprecise, and we hung on to the ball for too long. We played better in the second half, picked up our pace, and deserved to win by that one goal. Cyprus played well and didn’t make life easy for us.”

(Photos: Georg hochmuth/apa/afp via Getty Images)