Back to winning ways

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·28 September 2025

Back to winning ways

2-1 win at WSG Tirol

We took three important points away at WSG Tirol on Matchday 8 of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga. Kerim Alajbegovic put us in front in the first half, before Ratkov added a decisive second goal with 15 minutes to go. Despite the hosts pulling one back in stoppage time, our Red Bulls could celebrate.

Match summary

The sun was out underneath the mountain backdrop in Innsbruck, but we had to be patient to make our mark on the play. The hosts showed why their great start to the season has been no accident, twice getting chances for the lead – only for Schlager (9') and then Ratkov to save us (16').

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A half hour had been played before we took the upper hand. In the 34th minute, a superb attack took us into the lead! Diambou began the move that saw Ratkov turn it on for Alajbegovic to hammer home. The opener sparked the game into life, with our boys troubling the opponents with crosses in particular at the end of the first period. We took the momentum into the second half too, with a goal ruled out for offside (54') when Yeo began his run a little too soon. Around the 60-minute mark, Semlic's side became more active and hunted an equaliser, only for our boys to press on with 15 minutes to go.

In a phase in which we were unable to create any clear danger and the hosts were starting to threaten, Kjaergaard took hold of the ball on the break and played it up to Ratkov, who casually finished with style. The goal celebration had to be curtailed due to an offside call, but after a long VAR check, the goal was given. The hosts tried to go all-in at the end of the encounter and gained a goal back via Hinterseer from a corner. In the five minutes of stoppage time we had to hold our nerves, but the away win was in the bag.

The next test comes on Thursday, 2 October, in the UEFA Europa League away at Olympique Lyon, before we host SK Rapid Vienna next Sunday 5 October at 17:00 CEST. Tickets are available online in our Ticket Shop.

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Views

Winning does you a lot of good! It took us 15 minutes to get going, and then we were right at it, and we played a pretty good game, which became unnecessarily tense towards the end. With the 2-0 lead, we had the match well under control, but we weren't defending long balls well – we haven't quite got that defensive gene yet - the ability to throw ourselves into stopping them with everything we've got. We have room for improvement there - we need to be smarter and learn more.

Thomas Letsch

The win was very important. We believed we could do it until the end and showed our mentality. We may not have played our best, but in the end, only the three points count – especially in games like this. Now we're just happy. We played very well against Porto, and we want to build on that in Lyon!

Kerim Alajbegovic

Match details

Line-ups & substitutions

WSG Tirol: Stejskal – Boras, Lawrence, Kubatta – Butler (88. Naschberger), Müller ©, Taferner, Böckle – Sabitzer (85. Hinterseer), Wels (88. Vötter) – Anselm (76. Ola-Adebomi) FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager – Lainer, Gadou, Rasmussen, Terzic – Bidstrup © (46. Gourna-Douath), Diambou (89. Schuster) – Yeo (61. Kjaergaard), Alajbegovic (61. Kitano) – Baidoo (61. Vertessen), Ratkov Goals: Hinterseer (90.) - Alajbegovic (34.), Ratkov (76.) Attendance: 4,122 Referee: Josef Spurny Yellow cards: Taferner (78./Foul) - Gourna-Douath (46./Foul)

Injury news

Not available were Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), John Mellberg (knee) and Valentin Sulzbacher (ankle). Soumaila Diabate was out with suspension after his sending off against Sturm Graz.