Daum bows out with cup win

FK Austria Wien completed the domestic double following their 3-0 victory over FC Kärnten in Sunday's Austrian Cup final.

Clear favourites
Having sealed their first Bundesliga title since 1993 with a 2-1 away victory over rivals Grazer AK at the end of April, Austria were clear favourites to lift the trophy against a Kärnten side who finished eighth in the ten-team league. Austria claimed their place in the 68th cup final after victories over SEZ Bad Bleiberg, SK Sturm Graz and SV Austria Salzburg in earlier rounds, while Kärnten beat Blau-Weiss Linz and SV Ried, before knocking out second division champions SV Mattersburg at the semi-final stage.

Janocko opener
A crowd of 6,000 fans at the Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium in Graz saw Austria take the lead after 15 minutes as Vladimir Janocko's 20-metre free-kick curved into the top corner. Kärnten, winners of the cup in 2001, provided stern opposition and were unlucky not to equalise when Danish striker Thomas Ambrosius failed to beat Austria goalkeeper Thomas Mandl with a header on 34 minutes. Heimo Vorderegger then saw his effort disallowed for a foul on Mandl four minutes later.

Rushvelt double
Sigurd Rushvelt doubled Austria's lead two minutes after half-time, and after Kärnten strikers Marijo Maric and Stanko Bubalo missed several fine chances to reduce the deficit, Rushvelt scored his second goal with three minutes remaining to give his side the 23rd cup win of their history. The match also saw Austria's German coach Christoph Daum bid farewell to the club, having decided to leave the capital side at the end of the season.

'Future plans'
Daum, who has won the German title with VfB Stuttgart and the Turkish league with Besiktas JK, said: "My farewell is a matter of fact and I will soon announce my future plans, but at the moment we are very happy".

'Respectable result'
Austria's participation in the UEFA Champions League next season means that Kärnten will now take their place in the UEFA Cup. Kärnten coach Hannes Haubitz said: "We are disappointed, because the run of the game gave us some good chances, but getting to the final was a success for us. We have qualified for the UEFA Cup for the third time in a row and this is a respectable result for a small club like ours".