Impressive friendly performance claims draw

FC Red Bull Salzburg

·13 July 2024

Impressive friendly performance claims draw

2-2 against AC Sparta Prague

Our friendly match against AC Sparta Prague in the Koasastadion of St. Johann/Tirol ended in a 2-2 draw. The goals of our Red Bulls were scored by Oscar Gloukh and Dorgeles Nene.

MATCH SUMMARY

Our Red Bulls put in a blistering first-half performance against the Czech double winners from last season - who are in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. After just five minutes of play, we had our first opportunity as Aleksa Terzic turned the ball onto the crossbar from a Daghim pass. Three minutes later, Maurits Kjaergaard played in the speedy Dorgeles Nene. His ball across was converted by Oscar Gloukh to give us the lead (8'). The Czechs soon equalised against the run of play as Krystof Danek curled into the top corner from long-range (15').

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Our boys refused to be shaken and continued to press determinedly, with Sparta having to defend with a back five at times. Konate and Nene both had chances that goalkeeper Peter Vindahl saved superbly. An elegant chip from Nene (25') gave the Danish goalkeeper no chance, and it was 2-1 to our side. Gloukh then threatened once again, taking aim from the edge of the box after an elegant dribble, only to hit his effort into the post.

We didn't quite conjure up the same impressive level of attacking might after the break. The defence of our Red Bulls remained solid though, and the Czech side were rarely able to threaten our goal guarded by Jonas Krumrey - and then Salko Hamzic, who was one of nine substitutes introduced on the hour mark. One of them, Amankwah Forson, produced a standout moment in threatening the Sparta goalkeeper with a good shot from 20 metres out (69'). All the changes of Lijnders' side then allowed Sparta to get more into the game, winning possession several times high up the field and scoring in the 80th minute after a defensive misunderstanding, via a former Mattersburg player, Olatunji.

LINE-UP

Krumrey (60' Hamzic); Dedic (60' Diabate), Baidoo (60' Wallner), Blank (46' Piatkowski), Terzic (46' Mellberg); Gloukh (60' Lukic), Diambou (60' Capaldo), Kjaergaard (60' Forson); Daghim (60' Yeo), Konate (60' Simic), Nene (60' Diakite/84' Ratkov)

OTHER THINGS TO NOTE

Not available today for various reasons were Janis Blaswich, Mads Bidstrup, Fernando, Lucas Gourna-Douath, Daouda Guindo, Dijon Kameri, Takumu Kawamura, Bryan Okoh, Alexander Schlager and Ignace Van der Brempt.
Oumar Solet is training individually in Salzburg.
Euro 2024 participant Petar Ratkov returned to training on Tuesday and made his first appearance today.
Assistant coach Onur Cinel, who was also part of Euro 2024 with the Austrian coaching staff, returned to the team on Thursday.
Strahinja Pavlovic and Luka Sucic, who played in Germany for Serbia and Croatia, started training on 18 July.
Our Red Bulls returned to the training camp after the match and remain in Saalfeden until Wednesday, when we finish with a friendly against HNK Rijeka (at 18:00 CEST in Anif).

VIEWS AFTER THE MATCH

We gave all the players some playing time today, and we wanted to see all of them in action. There were two different teams out on the pitch. The first half was excellent, especially how we played as a block. We were very compact, won the ball well and had good attacks. The flexibility in our play pleased me. The late equaliser came from a careless moment, but we lacked determination before it. All in all, there were a lot of positive things, such as the spirit of the team and a lot of good individual performances. I am really pleased with the friendly today.

Pepijn Lijnders

We did well in the first half, in particular, pushed the opponents back and created lots of chances. Along with all the goals, we hit the post twice. There were a lot of changes after the break, and it didn't quite go so well. On the whole we are pleased with the match, however, as it was a decent performance.

Maurits Kjaergaard