No chance in Prague
Sparta Prague vs. Salzburg LIVE from 18:45
Red Bull Salzburg's new league phase of the Champions League has got off to a disastrous start! Austria's runners-up, who were short of substitutes, were beaten 3-0 by Sparta Prague on Wednesday after a poor performance at Stadion Letna. Kaan Kairinen (2), ex-Mattersburg player Victor Olatunji (42) and Qazim Laci (58) punished mistakes by the defensively very vulnerable Salzburg side, who lost their second competitive game in a row.
The last time this happened in the league was on September 1, when they lost 3-2 at Rapid. Due to a weather-related cancellation, coach Pepijn Lijnders' squad had not played a competitive match since then. The Dutchman is the first Salzburg coach to lose his debut in the "premier class". The next chance to do better will come on October 1 in Wals-Siezenheim against top French club Stade Brest. Before that, WSG Tirol await in the league away (Sunday) and Vienna Austria at home (September 28). The Czech record champions extended their unbeaten run to 27 competitive matches - 14 this season.
Lijnders was forced to make a number of changes compared to the recent performance at Rapid due to a number of absentees. In the center of defence, the recovered Hendry Blank replaced the not quite fit Samson Baidoo, while John Mellberg replaced the injured Maurits Kjaergaard on the left. One row in front, the two highly talented summer signings Bobby Clark and Stefan Bajcetic made their debut in the "Bulls" kit. Like Kjaergaard, the sick "long-distance runner" Mads Bidstrup was sorely missed.
In front of 17,612 vociferous spectators, the completely new squad did not get into the game at all, missed the start and could not cope with the aggression of the home side. They were punished after less than two minutes. Lukas Haraslin had the chance to move towards goal, but Janis Blaswich deflected his shot right into the middle, where Kairinen dusted it off with a left-footed shot from around eleven meters. The German goalkeeper almost conceded another goal two minutes later, Haraslin's shot narrowly missing the target. After a quarter of an hour, Olatunji made his first dangerous appearance with a good header.
Salzburg looked unsettled in defense, resulting in repeated mistakes and obvious coordination problems. They lacked ideas in attack against the 4-5-1 formation of the Czechs, who cleverly closed down the spaces. Moussa Yeo's equalizer was rightly disallowed for offside (17'). The Mali striker also missed the far corner (29). Right-back Amar Dedic was the most eye-catching player, pulling inside several times and finishing dangerously on one occasion (36').
However, Sparta went one better before the break: After Mellberg lost possession, captain Filip Panak simply knocked the ball forward in an attempt to clear, ideally setting up Olatunji, who scored from a free position into the far corner. Blaswich was not at fault for the goal this time and was powerless. Shortly before the break, Clark fired a free-kick over from a good position, which was in keeping with the ex-Liverpool player's rather disappointing debut performance.
At the break, Lijnders took Mellberg off the pitch and Mamady Diambou came on in his place, albeit on the right, with Dedic moving to the left. From the 57th minute, there was also a lot of change in attack, with Karim Konate making his comeback and Adam Daghim also getting a try. The game was over for Yeo and Dorgeles Nene. However, any hopes of turning the game around with the double substitution were buried almost immediately. After a Piatkowski blunder, Olatunji fed midfielder Laci, who left his opponent, including Blaswich, to run into space and finish into the empty net.
The defeat could have been even worse after that, for example when Ermal Krasniqi had a chance (78'). In contrast to their successful qualifying performances against Twente Enschede and Dynamo Kiev, Salzburg continued to fail to deliver at both ends of the pitch. As a result, there was a bitter setback right at the start in the battle for a place in the round of 16, to which the top eight teams of the 36 clubs are guaranteed a place and to which the teams in places 9 to 24 still have a chance via the play-off. The team from Prague, coached by Lars Friis, are appearing in the Champions League for the first time in almost 19 years and were considered to be an easier opponent compared to their seven other rivals.
The result:
Sparta Prague - Red Bull Salzburg 3:0 (2:0)
Prague, Stadion Letna, 17,612 spectators, SR Obrenovic/SLO
Goals: 1:0 (2.) Kairinen, 2:0 (42.) Olatunji, 3:0 (58.) Laçi
Yellow cards: Vitik and Gourna-Douath
Sparta: Vindahl - Vitik, Panak, Zeleny - Preciado, Laci (84. Sadilek), Kairinen, Wiesner (71. Rynes) - Birmancevic, Olatunji (64. Rrahmani), Haraslin (71. Krasniqi)
Salzburg: Blaswich - Dedic, Piatkowski, Blank, Mellberg (46. Diambou) - Capaldo, Bajcetic (83. Ratkov), Clark (66. Gourna-Douath) - Nene (57. Daghim), Yeo (57. Konate), Gloukh
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