Salzburg Remains Unbeaten for the 16th Time in a Row Against Austria: Recap of Austria Vienna vs. RB Salzburg Bundesliga Match

Salzburg, who had already won the championship for the tenth time in a row two rounds earlier, remained unbeaten against Austria for the 16th time in a row thanks to a goal from Sekou Koita (30′) and said goodbye with just one defeat this season on vacation.

Andreas Gruber gave the Austria fans hope for a win and fourth place in a dramatic finish with the equalizer (90′), but it wasn’t enough. Rapid ended up one point ahead of their arch-rivals in the final standings.

Ten failures at Salzburg

Salzburg coach Matthias Jaissle fielded the best eleven available in view of a long list of injuries, only striker Benjamin Sesko was temporarily out with a muscle injury. In Austria, Johannes Handl, Matthias Braunöder and Manuel Polster (instead of the injured Doron Leidner) were new in the starting eleven compared to the recent 1: 3 at LASK.

Koita penalty puts champions in front

The plan to use a lot of courage to force the small chance of fourth place, to land the necessary victory in the face of Rapid’s defeat in Klagenfurt, didn’t work out for long stretches. Thanks to good pressing, Salzburg’s defense didn’t allow anything for a long time, one of the few dangerous “bulls” actions up front gave the visitors the lead. Matteo Meisl brought down Junior Adamu in the penalty area, and the penalty kick was easily converted by Koita – according to a video study by referee Stefan Ebner. A little later, the Malian chased a shot from a good position clearly over the goal (34th).

Austria reacted with their best phase shortly before the break, but it went unrewarded. Aleksandar Jukic hit the side netting (41′), then caused some problems for Salzburg goalie Philipp Köhn with a free kick (43′). And Salzburg also survived the following stabbing of the penalty area undamaged.

Konate hit called back

The second half didn’t bring anything new for a long time, Austria tried in vain to create chances – the final pass failed again and again. For their part, Salzburg had only a few chances to score, the supposed 2-0 through substitute Karim Konate was disallowed for offside (75th).

Late goal for FC Red Bull Salzburg

The fact that it got exciting again – also because of Klagenfurt’s 2-1 lead against Rapid – was thanks to the purple pressure phase in the finish. With the best chance so far, “Joker” Gruber just barely missed a cross pass from Haris Tabakovic (83′), Köhn parried Tabakovic (89′). Finally, Gruber was there after Tabakovic-Assist with a low shot and made for a hot seven-minute stoppage time. There Köhn became Salzburg’s savior with a brilliant save against Tabakovic – and thus also that of Rapid.

Bundesliga: Austria Vienna – RB Salzburg in the LIVETICKER

(Source: SALZBURG24/APA)