Bundesliga home opener we hope to cherish

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·8. August 2025

Bundesliga home opener we hope to cherish

GAK ahead on Saturday evening

The Bundesliga is back in Salzburg for the new season – and that has to be cause for celebration. This Saturday, 9 August 2025, there will be a colourful programme of events for young and old alike, starting at 16:30 CEST as part of our official Bundesliga season-opening celebration. The serious business starts at 19:30 when our Red Bulls take on GAK and the points are up for grabs. It's clear that we can't be satisfied with our latest results and, after last week's 2-2 draw in Ried, we now need to take all three points at home.

GAK's Bundesliga opening result was identical to ours. In their league opener at home, the Styrians held Austria Vienna to a 2-2 draw after the Violets equalised late in the game. However, this was preceded by a bitter cup exit in the first round against FC Dornbirn – whom we face in the next round – making for a less than ideal start to the new season.

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After GAK flirted with relegation last season, there have been changes to coach Ferdinand Feldhofer's squad over the summer. Tobias Koch was brought in from Klagenfurt to Graz. Alexander Hofleitner from Kapfenberg and Ludwig Vraa from Bröndby IF are also strengthening the team, while Tim Paumgartner made the move from FC Liefering to the top flight. Among those who have left the club are Kevin-Prince Milla (FK Dukla Prague), Milos Jovicic and Laszlo Kleinheisler (both end of contract).

The Red Jackets will want to make life difficult for us with a tough fight, but we need to stand up to that in front of our home crowd. Tickets for the Bundesliga season opener are available online in our Ticket Shop. Details about the season-opening celebration, including the Stiegl beer barometer and more, can be found in our match day information article.

to match day info

The My RBS Prediction Game is back!

The new ADMIRAL Bundesliga season sees the My RBS Prediction Game return! You can compete with friends and other fans every week to win great prizes – and taking part is absolutely free! Simply regster below, if you haven't yet, and enter your tips for the next matchday.

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Injury news

Not available for the match are Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), John Mellberg (knee), Karim Onisiwo (thigh), Valentin Sulzbacher (thigh) and Christian Zawieschitzky (calf).
Frans Krätzig is suspended.

Views

GAK are a team that play with a back three that tries to play expansive football with a 3-4-3 system. For us, it's the first home game in this year's Bundesliga. We started with a good performance in Ried, but with too few points. So it's clear that we want to play well, but we also absolutely want to get three points against GAK. We now only have two days until the game against GAK. But that's what we want, as everyone wants to play lots of matches. This plays a role in our planning, of course, and we have to take the packed fixture list into account, which is why there will probably be four or five changes on Saturday.

Thomas Letsch

It feels good to me that we have the next task ahead of us very quickly and don't have to think about it for long. I'm already really looking forward to the first home game in the Bundesliga. We definitely want to start with a win at home and take that positive feeling into the next games. It certainly won't be a walk in the park against GAK. That's why we need to recover well, prepare as best we can with a good final training session and then take on GAK with intensity and freshness.

Stefan Lainer