Kerim and Karim clinch big win in Vienna

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·19 April 2026

Kerim and Karim clinch big win in Vienna

3-1 win takes us up table

Our boys prevailed in a big battle in Vienna to take a key 3-1 win. Daniel Beicheler's charges set the tone and saw out of an Austria recovery bid. Substitute Karim Onisiwo sealed the points in the ADMIRAL Bundesliga championship group clash.

Match summary

A minute's silence was observed before kick-off for football legend Alex Manninger, who tragically died in a car accident on Thursday. Our lads wore black armbands in his memory. They started with great energy and Kerim Alajbegovic was already celebrating after just three minutes. The youngster himself forced FAK defender Handl into a turnover, and Sota Kitano then played the ball back to Alajbegovic, who beat goalkeeper Sahin-Radlinger at the near post (3'). This early goal, initiated by Alajbegovic, was a blow to the sluggishly starting Violets.

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Yorbe Vertessen, Karim Konate, and Austria's Barry, who narrowly missed an own goal, had further chances for a second goal before Konate finally doubled the lead, converting an Alajbegovic cross from the penalty spot for 2-0 (28'). The offside flag and perhaps also the increasingly difficult conditions due to the heavy rain prevented another goal before the half-time whistle.

The home team was then about to unleash a furious spell. While Alex Schlager heroically prevented us from conceding a goal, even the Austrian national team goalkeeper couldn't handle every situation – Boateng pounced on a loose ball after a throw-in to pull a goal back (61').

While Austria continued to force Schlager into some key saves, a Viennese native brought their mini recovery to a halt. Just moments after entering the pitch, Karim Onisiwo took the ball from the hard-working Sota Kitano. The 34-year-old curled the ball beautifully into the net, leaving Sahin-Radlinger and the nearly 15,000 fans in the Generali Arena awestruck (77').

Nothing further happened in the final stretch, as we had another good day in Vienna-Favoriten – we've been unbeaten here since March 2014 – to keep our title hopes alive.

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That will do us a lot of good! The first half was very solid, then we had to go through some difficult phases where Alex made some good saves – but you need that. It was also important not to be punished for everything and to actually win. That's been too rare in recent weeks. Accordingly, we're satisfied with the result and the way the game went. We'd be wise to focus on Wednesday and not on anything that might happen in mid-May.

Daniel Beichler

Today we showed that we can win a game like this through sheer grit and determination. The first half, in particular, was really good. In the second half, we lost a bit of control and had shorter spells of possession, but it definitely feels like a deserved victory. It was important for us to see that we can still do it. This will give us a boost – and we're back in action in three days. We want to get all three points at home then.

Tim Drexler

Match data

Line-ups & substitutions

FK Austria Vienna: Sahin-Radlinger – Wiesinger, Dragovic, Handl (46. Plavotic) – Ranftl, Barry, Fischer © (82. K. Lee), T. Lee (70. Schablas), Saljic (70. Wustinger), Markovic (82. Vucic) – Boateng

FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager – Lainer, Schuster, Drexler, Krätzig – Bidstrup ©, Kitano, Kjaergaard (90. Diabate) – Vertessen (90. Aguilar), Konate (74. Onisiwo), Alajbegovic (82. Yeo)

Referee: Markus Hameter Goals: Boateng (61.) - Alajbegovic (3.), Konate (28.), Onisiwo (77.) Yellow cards: Saljic (35./Foul), Boateng (62./Foul) bzw. Kjaergaard (14./Foul), Lainer (45.+1/Foul), Krätzig (50./Foul), Yeo (86./Foul) Attendance: 14.523

Injury news

Niot available were Takumu Kawamura (knee), Oliver Lukic (back), Justin Omoregie (shoulder) and Damir Redzic (thigh). John Mellberg was also not fit in time.