Red Bull Salzburg will be crowned champions in front of the home crowd
In the previous week still dependent on Sturm Graz. On Sunday (2.30 p.m.) Salzburg has it in its own hands to close the sack in the Bundesliga. Another win over Vienna’s Austria would give the “Bulls” the nineteen championship titles in their home arena, no matter what Sturm does at Rapid afterwards.
“We are highly motivated and want to crown ourselves in front of our own fans on Sunday,” said Salzburg coach Matthias Jaissle.
The game in Wals-Siezenheim is sold out with the exception of the guest sector because of the expected title celebration, so there is a good atmosphere. Statistically, nothing can go wrong either, in 33 home games against Austria there have only been three defeats since 2005/06. The title is fixed if Sturm don’t score more points than Salzburg on Sunday.
Jaissle warn of Austria
As always, Jaissle warned his troops to concentrate fully. “You could see in the last game that it won’t be a sure-fire success,” he said, looking back on the 2-1 win last Sunday in Vienna, which was fixed relatively late thanks to Joker Luka Sucic (78th). “Austria should not be underestimated.
Even in a season like this, should the title ever come to a halt, that would be a very important achievement, stressed Jaissle, who, with the exception of the injured or battered Sekou Koita, Bryan Okoh, Albert Vallci and Daouda Guindo, is all up Foosball available. “The value is extremely high, it’s always underestimated,” said the 34-year-old, whose team had set an Austrian highlight with the Champions League round of 16. “It’s the most honest title, even with the points halved. The motivation and appreciation of the title is extremely high.”
Austria will “not stand guard”
For Austria coach Manfred Schmid one thing is clear before the difficult trip to Wals-Siezenheim: “Salzburg is rightly close to the title,” said the Viennese, but didn’t want to “stand guard for the championship celebration”. The most recent 1:2 was the second defeat in a row after the strong violet spring, against the “bulls” did not score a point in three attempts this year. “We were very disappointed because we were unlucky to lose. We deserved a lot more in the three games against Salzburg in the summer, so we have to see that we finally reward ourselves in Salzburg on Sunday: especially now.”
The optimism of Austria, who will stay in Salzburg and travel from there to Wednesday’s match at WAC, is still great. “The atmosphere in the team is very good, they felt that we were very close to taking something against Salzburg,” Schmid, who is still missing Georg Teigl and Muharem Huskovic. The 19-year-old storm talent, who only had three cases in the spring, is still suffering from muscular problems.
First leg referee in action again
Incidentally, Christian-Petru Ciochirca, the man who caused a lot of purple frustration as the main referee last Sunday, will act as VAR man. “He apologized for it in the dressing room, but that doesn’t do us much good,” Schmid reported after the game. After a crossbar header from Nicolas Capaldo, Ciochirca mistakenly decided on a corner kick, from which Salzburg were 1-0 up one field. Immediately before, video assistant Rene Eisner had revised a penalty whistle for Salzburg after a foul right on the edge of the penalty area – much to Ciochirca’s displeasure. Now the 32-year-old has the opportunity to do better in front of the screens.