Football – Salzburg is aiming for a “brave and cheeky” CL start against Milan
Coach Matthias Jaissle will face “huge names and tremendous quality” in the sold-out arena with 29,520 spectators, being extremely “brave and cheeky”, this is the only way to keep Italy’s champions in check. “An opponent who is very, very high on the shelf,” said Jaissle with respect.
Conversely, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to hide yourself in any way. “Last year we often managed to annoy the big players. Maybe that will be possible again,” he said, looking back on wins against FC Sevilla, VfL Wolfsburg and OSC Lille, which may have led to the likely promotion of an Austrian team to the knockout stage -Round led. An undertaking that will undoubtedly become even more difficult in Group E this season with Milan, Chelsea and Dinamo Zagreb.
“We know very well who we’re playing against and what top performance it takes to be able to survive against AC Milan,” explained midfielder Nicolas Seiwald, whose team lost only one of nine competitive games today (against Sturm Graz) and in in the league has a goal difference of 18:3. Seiwald also relies on the intensive pressing football of the Red Bull brand. “We want to hurt them with our intensity and our pressing,” said the ÖFB team kicker. They will “do everything so that we can annoy the Italian champions”.
It was similar for veteran Andreas Ulmer. “Milan are a very, very good team, not only on offense but also on the defensive. But we will find our space. They don’t experience that very often on the pitch, so we want to surprise them,” said the 36-year-old firmly captain and also thought the recipe for his 21st CL group game “in good German: don’t shit”.
Jaissle has to adjust his match plan because of Luka Sucic’s adductor injury. “The muscle is not yet as we imagine it to be,” the coach reported on Monday. A deployment of the attacking midfielder is “very, very questionable, it would quickly be a miracle.” It is quite possible that Jaissle will put his trust in 18-year-old Dijon Kameri, who made his starting eleven debut in the league on Saturday in a 2-0 win over WSG Tirol. “He’s in such a good mood, seems very liberated,” said Jaissle about the ÖFB junior team player. Other players like Fernando or Maurits Kjaergaard could also be considered as Sucic’s substitutes.
For Milan coach Stefano Pioli it will hardly make a difference, either way the successful coach does not take the duel lightly. “It’s going to be a difficult game,” said the 56-year-old, whose team is still undefeated in 2022/23. “I’ve seen three or four games. They’re a team with a lot of pace, they play with a lot of intensity and they’re electric in attack.”
Although the fast 41-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic, probably the best-known kicker, will be missing for a long time with a knee injury, you need to worry about the current second in Serie A, but don’t do it. Names such as France’s veteran striker Olivier Giroud (35), Portugal’s dribbling offensive man Rafael Leao (23), midfielder Sandro Tonali (22) or the French goalie Mike Maignan, who was strong again in the recent 3-2 derby win over Inter, vouch for this.
Pioli saw his squad clearly improve on the disappointing CL performance in the previous season. At that time, the premier class return ended after eight years in a group with Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and FC Porto in fourth place. “We grew a lot thanks to our experience in the Champions League last season,” emphasized Pioli.