Austria’s football doubles winner FC Salzburg suffered their first home defeat since December 2020 or during Matthias Jaissle’s coaching era. The “Red Bulls” lost 1:2 (0:1) to Chelsea on the fifth day of the Champions League and now have to worry about staying in the European Cup.
On Wednesday in a week (9 p.m., ServusTV) it needs countables in Milan’s Meazza Stadium, where the Italian champions AC Milan will be the opponent. Chelsea, on the other hand, have no worries, the English are already in the round of 16 of the “premier class”.
In memory of Dietrich Mateschitz
29,520 fans had turned the completely sold-out Red Bull Arena in Wals-Siezenheim into a “cauldron” that was garnished with a dash of goosebumps. That wasn’t just due to the importance of the game.
The minute of applause (from the ranks and also on the Salzburg side) for the 78-year-old Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz corresponded to his ideas, it was a gesture of respect, appreciation and recognition for a man without whom it such performances on the largest international stage at club level would never have existed.
Under the banner “Thank you Didi”, Salzburg wanted to put up their tried and feared pressing, which looked pretty good for 20 minutes. But on the other side was Chelsea FC, who had won the Champions League in 2020/21.
It would be too cheap to attribute the dominance of the “blues” to certain personnel shortages in the Mozart city. It wasn’t the nine failures originally feared, but with Solet, Capaldo, Captain Ulmer (after all, on the bench) and Fernando, four absolute regulars were missing from the starting eleven, which was the youngest in Salzburg’s “premier class” history.
Very offensive Chelsea formation
The Londoners had deployed a concentrated offensive power. Graham Potter’s team, unbeaten since taking office, emerged with Havertz, Sterling, Aubameyang and Pulisic. Italy’s European champions Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic operated as ordering hands.
Born in Linz (student league footballer of SportMS Kleinmünchen) and Croatian national player, he had no desire to give the Austrians anything. On the contrary: After Wöber had unluckily tipped the ball in a duel, the 28-year-old Kovacic mercilessly sank the ball in the 23rd minute from around 16 meters with the inside in the left corner. Chelsea led 1-0 – not undeservedly, although Salzburg previously fired a warning shot from Sucic (15’/over).
That was far from the only moment when Chelsea’s great class flashed. The squad has a market value of 861.5 million euros, that of Salzburg brings it to 203.93 million. Ascending trend. Something is coming up again. That was borne out by the Under-19 side’s 5-1 win over their peers in the UEFA Youth League a few hours earlier.
Salzburg was well served at the break with the 0:1, the extremely strong goalkeeper Köhn prevented a significantly higher deficit – in a duel with Havertz (2nd) and three times against Aubameyang, who first headed (26th), then completely free-standing (32nd ) and then failed with a placed low shot (45 + 2). “It could have been 3-0 or 4-0,” said ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick.
Dream start to the second half
Salzburg coach Matthias Jaissle needed answers about one-way street football. And seemed to find her. The 49th minute had just begun when Wöber advanced on the left half. The replacement captain’s cross was perfect for Junior Adamu’s run, who scored confidently to make it 1-1 – goal number ten of the season. Lucky is the brave.
That was only a temporary damper on Chelsea’s ambitions. The “Blues” increased the number of strokes again, again Köhn saved brilliantly against Aubameyang (52nd), after the subsequent corner Adamu cleared on his own line (52nd). It is an asset at the back and at the front.
An open exchange of blows developed in which Chelsea should have the edge. Pulisic duped three (not exactly aggressively attacking) Salzburgers, for the German national player Kai Havertz the shot was clear from around 18 meters, the shot with a flick into the left corner of the cross made neutral observers click their tongues – 1: 2 (64th).
But Salzburg did not give up. “Joker” Sesko tested Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa (67th), who should err 120 seconds later indisposed through the penalty area. Pavlovic headed in front of him, veteran Thiago Silva uncompromisingly scraped the ball away from the line (69′).
Okafor: “We gave everything”
For Austria’s doubles winner, this was something like the start of an intense final phase, but the storm and urge period was not rewarded. In the end, Chelsea cheered.
“Big compliments to the fans for the support,” said Salzburg striker Noah Okafor: “We gave our all. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough today, but we won’t give up. We’ll get over it, now it’s off to Milan.”
Source: Nachrichten
