Salzburg coach Jaissle after work victory in Altach: “It was a real battle”
FC Fed Bull Salzburg will continue to lead the Austrian Bundesliga table after the eleventh matchday. In the 3-2 away win in Altach, the series champions didn’t let themselves be thrown off course by the difficult pitch conditions. The hosts, meanwhile, had to deal with a wrong decision by the referee team.
Salzburg wins the rain battle in Altach 3-2.
FC Red Bull Salzburg via Getty Images
No fewer than nine new players have written Salzburg-Head coach Matthias Jaissle at the away game in altach compared to 1-0 home win against Dinamo Zagreb onto the pitch – and should ultimately do everything right. The Champions League starter, who is also on the right track in the premier class with five points after three matchdays, won 3-2 in Vorarlberg and thus extends the lead over the first pursuer Sturm Graz in the domestic Bundesliga to five for the time being points out.
Bundesliga – 11th matchday
Looking at the full rotation and the difficult space conditions, Jaissle was extremely satisfied despite his team’s mediocre performance in the “Sky” conversation after the game: “Anyone who was here in the stadium noticed that it wasn’t possible to play cleanly and to play football in front of Flat. It was a real battle. But I’m proud of the squad because you have to do that first.”
Still disappointed
Similar statements were made by Maximilian Wöber, who captained Salzburg in the Ländle: “If you look at the space conditions and how the ball runs, it became a competitive game from the start. Altach is on an equal footing with us. Every team can fight, run and bite. That’s why we found it difficult to bring our dominance to the pitch.” With his personal situation – Wöber was not in the starting XI against Zagreb during the week – the 24-year-old was less happy: “Of course it hurts and never is nice when you think you have a certain role. But that’s part of football.”
With goal and assist, Wöber recommended himself for the upcoming game in Zagreb (Tuesday, 9 p.m.) for the starting line-up, Jaissle will have to think about one thing in the coming hours. A win in the Croatian capital Salzburg could take a big step towards the round of 16. “Fortunately we’re flying to Zagreb with a big chest now, but we know it’s going to be nastier than in the first leg. Dinamo will do everything to let us get into the game. They want to take the three points at home but we have too up to something,” announced Jaissle.
Nuhiu: “Either we do it all or not at all”
While Salzburg’s eyes quickly settled on the task ahead, Altach’s narrow defeat had to die. One referee’s decision in particular caused the hosts to shake their heads: in the 21st minute, Kamil Piatkowski cleared an Atdhe Nuhiu header well behind the goal line, but due to the lack of goal-line technology and unclear television images, the score remained 0-0. “We have VAR but we don’t have goal-line technology – developers do it all or not at all,” Nuhiu said.
The fact that referee Walter Altmann and his team failed to recognize a penalty-worthy foul on Salzburg offensive man Sekou Koita (24′) and an assault on Nuhiu (87′) rounded off the poor performance of the referees. Altach coach Miroslav Klose didn’t dwell on these decisions and instead praised his team’s development: “I always had the feeling that a goal could still be scored. That wasn’t the case in the last few games.”