Awful evening in Champions League opener

FC Red Bull Salzburg

·18 September 2024

Awful evening in Champions League opener

0-3 defeat at Sparta Prague

We hadn't imagined it like that … our first night in the brand-new league phase of the UEFA Champions League ended in a 3-0 defeat away at AC Sparta Prague. The Czech double winners made a fine start to the match, from which we never recovered.

Match summary

You could feel the sheer excitement in Prague's Letna stadium at their return to the UEFA Champions League after a 19-year absence. It didn't take long for the passion of the 20,000 fans to show on the field. Sparta started in some style, seizing on our loss of possession in the build-up to punish us. Haraslin took aim from the left and Janish Blaswich's save fell to the feet of Kairinen, who turned in to delight the hosts to our great despair in just the second minute!

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We weren't able to shake off the early deficit as easily as we wanted to. We found our way into the match after a quarter of an hour, with Moussa Yeo thinking he had equalised, only for the strike to be ruled out for offside (17'). There was no attacking onslaught, however, as a relatively uneventful affair headed towards the break. We had the lion's share of possession (over 75%!) but the shots would not come.

Just to top off a miserable first half, we conceded a second before the break totally against the run of play! A hopeful looped ball beat our entire defence and was latched onto by Olatunji on the turn to make it 2-0 (42').

We hoped for better in the second half, but we got more of the same. We continued to boss the ball but continued to struggle to create any chances of note. We lacked invention going forward and were too sloppy at the back. A third goal fell to the hosts, as Piatkowski let the ball out of his grasp at the back and Laci made it 3-0 (58').

That seemed to seal the sorrowful evening in Prague. The three-goal lead for Sparta sucked the tension out of the game. The composed hosts were a lot closer to a fourth goal at times than we to a first – it just wasn't going to happen. Here and there we got the odd chance, but nothing substantial came our way and we left the field with a 0-3 defeat that was tough to take, but not undeserved.

After a disappointing start, we now have to focus our energies on our first Champions League home match. We have two weeks to prepare for a better performance as we host Stade Brest in Salzburg on Tuesday 1 October! We are back in ADMIRAL Bundesliga action in the meantime this Sunday at WSG Tirol.

Views

You go into the match wanting to build pressure and then you concede a goal - that makes it really difficult, as the fans find their voice and the opponents grow in confidence. I think we grew more and more into the first half. We often had the ball but couldn't create enough chances. We know that we are here to learn and to grow though!

Pepijn Lijnders

It's extremely disappointing today. It really hurts! We wanted to do a lot, and we were really looking forward to it. We did too little in the end. We didn't play in the way we can, and we were too sloppy in a lot of ways - but we have to look forward!

Janis Blaswich

Line-up

Substitutions

Diambou for Mellberg (46'), Konate for Yeo (57'), Daghim for Nene (57'), Gourna-Douath for Clark (66'), Ratkov for Bajcetic (84')

Yellow cards

Piatkowski (58' unsporting behaviour), Gourna-Douath (72' foul)

Injury news

Not available for the match were Mads Bidstrup (ill), Fernando (thigh), Daouda Guindo (metatarsal), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Maurits Kjaergaard (ankle) and Aleksa Terzic (thigh).