Salzburg strives for a home win against Hartberg
League leaders Red Bull Salzburg did their homework with a lackluster performance and narrowly defeated TSV Hartberg 1-0. Things are not looking good for Klaus Schmidt and his team after the fifth defeat in a row.
Salzburg prevails in a duel with Hartberg.
FC Red Bull Salzburg via Getty Images
Salzburg did not show any weakness and bottom of the Bundesliga Hartberg beaten 1-0 (0-0) at home in the 14th round. On Saturday, however, a rotation self struggled to achieve a true work victory, which was only secured by “Joker” Noah Okafor (48th). Hartberg fought back bravely, but could not prevent the third defeat en suite or die 6th in the last 7 games. Salzburg can now fully concentrate on the Champions League “final” against Milan on Wednesday.
Bundesliga – 14th matchday
As expected, “Bullen” coach Matthias Jaissle happily rotated. Seven newcomers from Tuesday’s 2-1 draw with Chelsea populated the field at kick-off: Ignace van der Brempt, Kamil Piatkowski, Youba Diarra, Lawrence Agyekum, Roko Simic, Benjamin Sesko and Dijon Kameri. Last stood back in the starting XI for the first time after his shoulder injury on September 18. At Hartberg, five new players were allowed to try after the 1:5 slap against Rapid, central defender Thomas Rotter brought this circumstance to the first appearance of the season.
The Joker makes the decision
Playfully, there were no surprises. Salzburg dominated the action with an enormous 76 percent ball possession before the break, but mostly didn’t manage to break through the Hartberg lines. The result was many corner balls, a few misunderstandings on the pass and few chances worth mentioning. Kameri failed in a foot defense by TSV goalie Rene Swete (5th), 20 minutes later the approaching Simic missed the ball by just centimeters in the five (25th) after submission by Maximilian Wöber. Hartberg, for his part, only made a halfway dangerous attempt, but Jürgen Heil’s long-range shot went just wide of the goal (44th).
Maurits Kjaergaard and Okafor came on at the break, but two and a half minutes after the restart the ball wriggled in the net. With a bit of luck, the Swiss was in solo position after a blocked shot by Kjaergaard and shot safely into the far corner from a few meters. For their part, the home side allowed a little more. Matija Horvat’s attempt was blocked (53′), later Heil failed when he fell in the penalty area (61′). Shortly afterwards it was only a few centimeters that Seth Paintsil lost his supposed equalizer, but the Ghanaian was flagged for offside (62′).
Salzburg wasn’t able to close the sack early and only became a little more dangerous in the finish. Agyekum had two chances, but missed the shot (76′) and was blocked (77′). Only the final whistle released the big favorite.