Austria’s series champions won the ghost home game against Sevilla FC with a goal by Noah Okafor (50th) 1-0, ending Group G second in the table and thus becoming the first Austrian club to make it into the knockout phase of football -Champions League. There it will be up against one of the many prominent group winners in the coming year. The draw will take place on Monday.
For the people of Mozartstadt it was the first success in the “premier class” after the last two defeats. In addition, the 18th Champions League match of the Red Bull era was the first time they did not concede a goal. The reward for this is, among other things, an additional UEFA bonus of 9.6 million euros.
The Salzburg team achieved the big triumph despite by no means a terrific performance, but with a large portion of callousness, especially in the second half, when they were outnumbered after yellow-red for Joan Jordan (64th). Before the break, there was a lot of struggle and spasm. The “cops” were nervous – Coach Matthias Jaissle’s team often lost promising moments of switching after hard-earned ball wins with a few unnecessary bad passes. Sevilla FC, whose starting eleven players are on average almost six years older than them Salzburg’s were, presented themselves more hardened and structured in this phase, but the Andalusians were not really dangerous for the time being.
The only result of the guests before the break were headers from Jules Kounde to Cornern next to the goal (11th, 45th) and a shot by Ivan Rakitic, in which Salzburg-Closing man Philipp Köhn had no problems (35th). The hosts, on the other hand, only had a miss from Luka Sucic from about 18 meters (33rd).
It was much more turbulent at the beginning of the second half. After a cross from Gonzalo Montiel and an extension of the header from Rakitic, Munir El Haddadi headed the crossbar from close range, Köhn would have had no chance (48th). A little later succeeded Salzburg the gold goal: Andreas Ulmer ensured the ball win, Nicolas Seiwald made the game fast, Brenden Aaronson cleared Karim Adeyemi on the left and Okafor used his Stangl pass by direct acceptance (50th).
Sevilla became more offensive, but soon had to take the next blow in the neck. Adeyemi hurried away from Jordan, the already cautioned midfielder only knew how to help himself with a foul and saw a yellow-red (64th). Shortly thereafter, Adeyemis was replaced apparently because of muscle problems, but it was possible without the DFB team player Salzburg no longer take the ascent.
The “Bulls” controlled the game, showed in shots from Okafor (72nd, 73rd) and Aaronson (87th) on the offensive and did not allow the Spaniards any more compelling chance. The historic ascent was perfect, and yet Sturm Graz still has a bit ahead of Salzburg in the Champions League: The Styrians even advanced as group winners in 2000/01, but this was not followed by the knockout phase, but another group phase.
Source: Nachrichten
