Back to the Bundesliga after the international break

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·3 April 2026

Back to the Bundesliga after the international break

Test at Hartberg on Sunday

The final international break of the season is over, and now it's time to get down to business in the eight remaining matches of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga! Our first challenge is against the bottom-placed team in the championship group, who are still very much in contention, only two points behind us. Kick-off is at 14:30 CEST on Sunday, April 5th, at the newly renovated Profertil Arena in Hartberg, where we aim to take three points and ideally close the gap to the league leaders.

Our matches against TSV Hartberg in the regular season were always hard-fought. In August, we returned home with a 2-1 away win, while the home game at the beginning of March ended goalless. Hartberg have drawn several times recently, and they have interestingly also had a player sent off in each of their last two league matches. Hartberg's main goal threat this season is our former academy player Elias Havel, who currently sits second in the top scorers list with ten goals.

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Our coach, Daniel Beichler, needs to get our lads – ten of whom have been away on international duty – back in top form as quickly as possible. What should help is the fact that several of them were able to gain confidence boosts with their national teams. Kerim Alajbegovic helped Bosnia qualify for the World Cup, Jannik Schuster demonstrated his goalscoring prowess, and Aleksa Terzic and Clement Bischoff also gained goal involvements.

Whether we can convert this energy into league points on Sunday remains to be seen. You can follow the action as usual from home on Sky Sport Austria.

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Injury news

Unavailable for this match are Takumu Kawamura (knee), John Mellberg (thigh), Justin Omoregie (shoulder) and Moussa Yeo, who will be sidelined for a few days with knee problems.

Anrie Chase is suspended due to the red card he received in the Sturm Graz match.

Stefan Lainer has returned to training after recovering from a thigh injury.

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On Sunday, we'll face a team known for defending very compactly and deep, using a five-man deep block to protect their goal. The fact that this tactic works is evident in that they have only conceded three goals this calendar year. Our focus will be on penetrating the opposition's penalty area as often as possible in our attacking play – as we saw glimpses of in our last encounter with Hartberg – and then capitalising on our chances. At the same time, it will be crucial to nip in the bud the counter-attacking opportunities Hartberg are looking for and not allow them anything.

Daniel Beichler

We know Hartberg's defensive qualities and how difficult it is to create scoring chances against them. That makes it all the more important that we stay focused and capitalise on one of our opportunities. We need to do that as early as possible, because that would completely change the character of the match and likely open up more space for us.

Soumaila Diabate