FC Red Bull Salzburg
·26 November 2024
FC Red Bull Salzburg
·26 November 2024
Daniel Beichler's boys set the tone from the start at the Ulrich Haberland stadium and managed to last over 40 minutes with ten men while seeing off the hosts' pressure to land their fourth win in five. With third place in the UEFA Youth League table, we are now assured of remaining in Europe next spring!
Our Young Bulls needed no time to get into gear in Germany. After Leverkusen defender Pohl sent a header narrowly wide of our target, it was one of our boys who was next to shine. Zeteny Jano was the first to test Schlich in the hosts' goal, and Tim Trummer then followed - and that was a test the shot stopper could not rise to! Our winger smashed his shot straight past the goalie from the edge of the area for a spectacular opening strike (16')!
Beichler's boys were determined to press on as Jano drilled a shot on goal before Alex Murillo had a go from a tight angle and Edmund Baidoo threatened from a corner. Schlich was able to stop us from getting a second, with our best chance to extend the lead seeing him pull off a super save following a Murillo header. The hosts had the upper hand in the final moments of the first half, with a Natali volley zipping just wide before Mensah forced our goalkeeper, Christian Zawieschitzky, into making his first save.
The second half started with a shock as Jano went too high into a challenge and picked up his second yellow card of the afternoon (48'). There was no taking the momentum away from our charges, however. Daniel Beichler switched to a back four as our Young Bulls continued to set the tone. Trummer hit the side netting before Oliver Lukic chipped over from a promising position in the middle. Substitute Phillip Verhounig just missed out on a great ball in from Lukic.
There was virtually no spotting that we had gone a man down for the third time in our current Youth League campaign. Zawieschitzky was there to keep Bayer's young hopefuls at bay - stopping the only clear chance for an equaliser superbly from short-range. Our boys therefore won in Leverkusen to ensure they remain in the Youth League in the spring!
It was great to see the way we kept going and didn't give them a whiff - we just enjoyed working so hard off the ball against eleven Leverkusen players. We had some super moments on the break and were the better team with a man less. The boys did brutally well - well done to them!
Daniel Beichler
Zawieschitzky – Gadou, Schuster, Brandtner – Bendra, Paumgartner, Trummer (87' Moser) – Lukic (76' Aguilar), Jano – Baidoo (76' Rackl), Murillo (57' Verhounig)
Jano (32' unsporting behaviour), Aguilar (82' foul)
Jano (48' foul)
Bulat Sariyev (KAZ)