It was a successful season for Matthias Jaissle and his team.
APA/KRUGFPHOTO

The 48th domestic Bundesliga season ended as expected with the ninth championship title in a row for Red Bull Salzburg. Since the first appearance in 2005, the Ligakroesus, which has always been at the top after 2013 (Austria Vienna), has triumphed for the 13th time and also won the ninth double in the club’s history. Nevertheless, one or the other ambitious additional goal for the team of head coach Matthias Jaissle remained unachieved in the end.

The hoped-for 26 victories of the season, which so far only Wiener Austria achieved in the 1985/86 season – albeit in 36 rounds – were missed on Saturday in the 1-1 draw against Austria Klagenfurt. The series champion almost said goodbye to the season with a defeat. Sekou Koita, who came on as a “joker” after a long injury break, was just able to prevent this with his goal in the 93rd minute.

15 points ahead of pursuer Sturm

Thus, Salzburg stopped at 25 wins, which they had already achieved in the 32-game league in 2018/19 and 2020/21. As well as three other times when 36 rounds are played namely 2013/14, 2016/17 and 2017/18. Since then, with 83 points, they have also held the corresponding record since the introduction of the three-point rule in 1995. Previously, a win was only worth two points if you were to compare Austria’s tally in the 1985/86 season (26-6-4 ) would result in an even better value with 84 counters.

Even a second Jaissle wish does not come true. At 52, the series champion only equaled his best points from the 2018/19 season. Salzburg suffered only two defeats of the season like this time (1:2 each in Klagenfurt and Graz) in 2018/19 and a year ago, with 77 points (without sharing points after 22 rounds) with the result of 2018/19 (80 ) missed.

The lead over second-placed Sturm Graz, who became runners-up for the first time since 2017/18, is 15 points, although it would have been 24 if there were no points shared. A year ago, the pursuers Rapid and Sturm, who were tied on points, were also 15 points (or 18 and 21 without sharing points) behind. Wiener Austria, which was only represented in the qualifying group two seasons ago, also surprisingly made it onto the podium in third place – they last did so in 2016/17, when they came in second. The gap to the master is clear with 23 (or 34) points.

14 wins in a row across the seasons

Rapid, recently second twice, had to be content with fifth place behind the WAC and now fight against the Monday winner from the WSG Tirol against the LASK for a place in the European Cup. Only two threes in the championship round, the last six rounds (0-3-3) without a win, is the weak final balance. Coach Ferdinand Feldhofer, who replaced Dietmar Kühbauer in the autumn finish, couldn’t do anything about it either.

The Salzburgers have already achieved a new club best. They achieved 14 consecutive wins across the seasons, four of which came in 2020/21. Twelve wins in a row so far, but only in one season (from round 17 to 28 in 2013/14) have been the best. The “Bulls” also managed to win in the first ten rounds of the 2018/19 season.

They remained undefeated in the first 15 rounds (12-3-0), across seasons it was even 21 rounds (17-4-0) since the 2: 3 in Tirol on April 21, 2021. Adeyemi and Co. also conceded from the 17th to 28th round in twelve games (11-1-0) no defeat, until 1:2 in Graz on April 27th.

Twice no victory looks out at home

However, they were a long way from their Bundesliga record of 33 games without defeat (21-12-0) between the 3-1 loss in Ried on November 24, 2012 and the 3-1 loss at Admira on November 10, 2013. The all-time Oberhaus record in Austria is held by the Wiener Sportclub with 41 rounds without defeat (33-8-0) across seasons from 1957/58 to 1959/60. At that time only 26 rounds were played per season.

Salzburg won 14 games at home, only in the 0:0 against Admira and 1:1 against Klagenfurt there was no win in sight. The club has not lost in the league in 26 games (23-3-0) since the 2-3 draw against WAC on December 20, 2020 at the Red Bull Arena. But there is still a long way to go before the club’s best performance of 53 games (45-8-0/2016 to 2020).