FC Red Bull Salzburg
·30 October 2024
FC Red Bull Salzburg
·30 October 2024
What a win! In the last 16 of the UNIQA ÖFB Cups, we took a richly-deserved 3-0 success against WSG Tirol. After a quiet opening phase had been brought to life by a penalty that Karim Konate converted to give us the lead, our Red Bulls stepped up another level in the second half and Aleksa Terzic curled in a sensational second Adam Daghim sealed it as a late substitute.
The floodlights were shining through the fog in Salzburg - everything was set up for a midweek evening clash. Both teams turned up too, with an end-to-end opening before our boys increasingly gained control of proceedings against the deep Tirol defence. After around 30 minutes of play our attacking efforts picked up a speed, with our former player Adam Stejskal doing everything until then to keep us out.
A penalty awarded to our boys made the difference. A trip on Karim Konate was all it took for Harald Lechner to rightly point to the spot. Konate stepped up and converted cleanly to make it 1-0 at the break (35').
We increased the pressure in the second period with WSG struggling to get the ball away from their own half - it seemed only a matter of time until the second goal came. Bobby Clark's good effort from distance was parried by Stejskal into the path of Aleksa Terzic, who curled a sensational strike past the WSG goalkeeper (53') and delightedly celebrated the special goal!
The second goal further boosted the confidence of our Red Bulls, who were laying on an attacking onslaught with one dream move following the next. The third goal was surely on its way by this stage as Tirol gave up all hope of attacking!
We would indeed get one more strike to cherish. Pepijn Lijnders introduced a fresh quartet of late substitutes, one of whom - Adam Daghim - struck on his first opportunity. Konate picked out the onrushing Dane superbly at the far post and the 19-year-old smashed the ball in to seal a thoroughly comprehensive 3-0 win (83').
The identity of our quarter-final opponents is already known. We are to go away to face LASK, with the game played between 31 January and 2 February 2025. The focus is now on the Austrian Bundesliga, as we host GAK this Saturday (2 November).
That was an important win for us! We wanted to show the fans in the stadium a good performance. That was the most important thing, and we did that as much as possible. We didn't make an ideal start, but I liked the reaction the team showed. It was definitely a step in the right direction!
Pepijn Lijnders
Our opening goal was richly deserved, and we did much better in the second half. I think it's normal after the last few weeks that we didn't play completely freely from the start, but we got well into it and took our reward with three goals and a win. We want to take this energy into the home match against GAK now!
Janis Blaswich
Guindo for Terzic, Daghim for Nene, Diambou for Bajcetic, Morgalla for Capaldo (all 82'), Lukic for Konate (85')
Bajcetic (10' foul), Gadou (43' dissent)
Not available for the match were Amar Dedic (adductors), Gaoussou Diakite (hip), Fernando (thigh), Oscar Gloukh (thigh), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Petar Ratkov (thigh), Alexander Schlager (whiplash) and Moussa Yeo (ankle).
Out due to injuries sustained against WAC on Sunday were Samson Baidoo (head), Lucas Gourna-Douath (ankle) and Maurits Kjaergaard (ankle).