Big win in first domestic match of season

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·26. Juli 2025

Big win in first domestic match of season

4-0 win against Union Dietach

Having gone into the break with a narrow 1-0 lead, Thomas Letsch's side stepped up a gear in the second period to take a clear win against their defensively minded regional league opponents thanks to goals from Dorgeles Nene, Petar Ratkov (twice) and youngster Kerim Alajbegovic.

Match summary

Our Red Bulls got down to business right away on the unusual setting of an artificial playing surface in the DietachArena. The hosts showed no sign of being overawed by our reputation though, and tested our boys a few times. With the backing of the fans who travelled to support them, Mau Kjaergaard & Co quickly took charge of proceedings. Kerim Alajbegovic, the youngest Red Bull on the field, was a particular nuisance down the left. The first opportunity for our boys fell to Dorgeles Nene, who was not able to make the most of an inch-perfect Soumaila Diabate pass (14'). A short while later, Petar Ratkov had a go from long-range but only found the side netting (19').

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It didn't take long until the long due lead finally came. Maurits Kjaergaard supplied Ratkov in the area after another attack down the left. His shot was saved by Dietach goalkeeper Genshofer, but the ball landed to Nene, who only had to turn it in (22'). Alex Schlager was having a quiet afternoon, only having to keep his hands busy on two occasions in the first half - after a corner on the 30-minute mark and on one of the few breaks from Daniel Ruttensteiner's Dietach side just before the break. The last chance of the period fell to Jannik Schuster, who was gifted the ball after a mistake in the Dietach defence. Our big centre-back was not able to pounce from short range, however (44').

Sota Kitano tested the opposing goalkeeper for the first time straight after the restart, but the Japanese attacker's effort was not threatening enough (48'). Ratkov then tried to show how it's done but was unable to meet a tidy ball in from Alajbegovic (50'). The Serbian striker stepped up moments later in acrobatic fashion - as half-time substitute Edmund Baidoo charged through on the left into the penalty area and cut the ball back for Kitano. Baidoo had a go himself, but the ball fell to Ratkov, who was denied at the first attempt by the hosts' keeper but slotted the second in spectacularly – for 2-0 (52')!

Ratkov almost completed a brace shortly afterwards, with the attacker not quite able to get to a sharp ball in from Alajbegovic. He wasn't finished at that, though, pouncing on a perfect pass to slalom past the opposing defence before going around Genshofer and finishing in style (69'). Our progress seemed to be settled but there was still a score to settle between Ketan and Aleksa Terzic, who had a mighty coming together. A rough tackle from the Dietach player seemed to spark it, and a verbal clash followed. As neither player could be calmed and things became physical, the referee Emil Ristoskov stepped in to show a straight red card to both (77').

The cherry on the top of our cake was supplied by Alajbegovic, who took hold of a pass forward by Joane Gadou to go one-on-one with the Dietach goalkeeper, and beat him in style to get the reward for his strong performance in the match with a goal that made it 4-0 (90').

We therefore progressed without any difficulty into the second round of the UNIQA ÖFB Cup, which will be played from 26 to 28 August. Our Red Bulls will find out tomorrow (Sunday) who their opponents will be. The focus will now turn to the second leg of the second qualifying round in the UEFA Champions League, in which we host SK Brann on Wednesday 30 July at 20:45 CET in the Red Bull Arena.

Views

What a professional performance! We found things tough at the start to create clear chances, but at the end of the day we were very professional and deservedly won. It was a fair match until the red cards, a good get-together with a great atmosphere here. Job done and onto the second round!

Thomas Letsch

It is something very special for us, and I always look forward to the first round in the cup. We have all been at clubs like that, and we have all developed at them - it's always great to go back to your roots. We are playing in the cup to win it. We didn't manage that in the past two years, which makes it a very big aim for us this year, and we want to perform accordingly. It was a successful evening on the whole, today!

Alex Schlager

Line-up

Substitutions

Baidoo for Nene (46'), Diambou for Kjaergaard (46'), Gadou for Rasmussen (70'), Daghim for Ratkov (70'), Aguilar for Kitano (74')

Yellow card

Baidoo (59' foul)

Red card

Terzic (77' violent conduct)

Injury news

Not available for today's cup match were Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), Valentin Sulzbacher (thigh), Moussa Yeo (knee) and Christian Zawieschitzky (calf).