Kjaergaard brace secures first-leg success against FC Twente | OneFootball

2-1 win in home qualifier

It's back! Football returned to the Red Bull Arena – with a huge match! We took a 2-1 home win against FC Twente in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. That leaves us in a good position of making the play-off in the Netherlands next Tuesday, 13 August.

Match summary

There was a frantic start, with the first ten minutes offering thrilling end-to-end fare. It began with a real wake-up call as Janis Blaswich was forced into a strong save in the third minute as we were overwhelmed by a quick Twente attack.

We picked up the pace from there though and both Petar Ratkov (5') and our Olympian Oscar Gloukh (8') could have made it 1-0 before the visitors threatened again as Blaswich saved.

17,381 fans at the Red Bull Arena were served a real treat of football, with only one thing missing - goals!

As the first half wore on, Twente dropped back and our possession soared over the 60% mark. After half an hour's play, we upped our pace and finally got our reward before the break! A poorly cleared corner bounced in front of Maurits Kjaergaard (40'), who lashed the ball on the half volley into the net - a dream goal for the Dane in our opening home encounter of 2024/25!

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Pepijn Lijnders was forced into making a change at the break, with Kamil Piatkowski on for Hendry Blank, who had been suffering thigh problems.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Tukkers were sent out in the second half by Joseph Oosting to be more defensive. The Dutch outfit were clearly focused on avoiding conceding further goals and hoping to gain chances on the break against our high line. That led to a second period less easy on the eye than the first.

With half an hour left, the visitors finally tried to make some attacking play of their own. They got a good chance via attacking substitute (and new signing), Sam Lammers, who fired just over in the 63rd minute. Lijnders reacted by bringing Adam Daghim on for Petar Ratkov, and once again we set the tempo - with only the final balls failing to come in order to test Twente goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall more.

The tense first leg drew to a close at the Red Bull Arena with few fireworks - until right at the end. Just like in the first period, we struck right before the end, and once again it was from the fine feet of Mau Kjaergaard! Our boys played a brilliant move before the Dane smashed in for a brace from a tight angle (85'). Just when the comfortable lead looked to be in the bag, the visitors won a free-kick right on the edge of the area in the final minute - and substitute Michael Vlap dispatched it right into the bottom corner of our target (90').

That was that - we will travel to the Netherlands next week with a one-goal advantage. On Tuesday 23 August, our boys face FC Twente again aiming to hold onto their place in the play-offs. Would you like to join us? You can book one of our official bus journeys to the Netherlands.

to the away info

Our next show in Salzburg comes this week as we have our first Bundesliga home tie against FC Blau-Weiß Linz. Ahead of the match, there will be 1,050 litres of beer from the 2023/24 Stiegl Bierbarometer handed out at the Fanpark West, with numerous food trucks there. With a season ticket, you will not miss a single minute of our boys' Bundesliga action - so act fast to secure your seat at the Red Bull Arena:

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Pepijn Lijnders

Maurits Kjaergaard

Samson Baidoo

Line-up

Substitutions

Piatkowski for Blank (46'), Diambou for Gourna-Douath (59'), Daghim for Ratkov (68'), Capaldo for Bidstrup, Yeo for Gloukh (83')

Yellow card

Gourna-Douath (44' foul)

Injury news

Not available for the match were Fernando (thigh), Daouda Guindo (metatarsal), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), Leandro Morgalla (thigh) and Alexander Schlager (knee).