Sorry eight-minute spell sees us lose v Ferencvaros

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·23 October 2025

Sorry eight-minute spell sees us lose v Ferencvaros

2-3 defeat at home in the UEFA Europa League

What a blow! After starting well against Ferencvaros, we badly lost our way, and the visitors punished us with three quick goals after the break. Yorbe Vertessen's goal gave us hope, but we ended up with our third defeat in three matches in the UEFA Europa League.

Match summary

Thomas Letsch surprised by selecting a 4-3-3 formation. It paid off early on with the visitors being too passive an Edmund Baidoo trying his luck on the edge of the area to drill a shot through the mass of defenders and send us into the lead (13').

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An unfortunate moment almost put Robbie Keane's charges back in the game when a shot hit Jacob Rasmussen's hand in the area and led to a penalty. Alex Schlager came out on top against Varga to lap up the acclaim from his team-mates and fans (21')! We were unable to take much momentum from these two key moments, however. On the contrary, Ferencvaros upped the pace until the break. There was no improvement after the restart and the visitors levelled. We didn't get a challenge in to stop a cross that Varga volleyed in for 1-1 (50'). Ferencvaros sensed blood, and we completely lost our footing.

Moments later from a similar situation a cross from the left led to a header and we were behind (56'). To make matters worse, a long ball sailed over our defence and allowed Dele to slot in a third goal (58'). Yorbe Vertessen brought some hope off the bench, losing his marker after taking a ball forward from Sota Kitano and netting to reduce the deficit as Fradi were rattled. We went close several times to an equaliser before a wild final few minutes in which Naby Keita, of all players, had a chance to seal it (87') along with Joseph (88'). In the 90th minute, Joane Gadou had a big chance to take a point. Ultimately we went another match in the UEFA Europa League's league phase without taking a single point, which we only have ourselves to blame for.

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Yorbe's 2-3 brought a certain amount of energy back, but in the end, it's all about those ten minutes in which we gave the game away and lost. That was exactly the theme we addressed at half-time: that we need to be courageous rather than fearful, attack and harass the opponents from the front and not let them get into our half. We lacked that during this phase. The mistakes we made are annoying, of course. We win games together though, and we also lose games together. Zero points after three games is obviously not what we had hoped for and is disappointing.

Thomas Letsch

We all, the whole team, simply have to do more. At this level, you can't make three mistakes like that in such a short space of time. Going home with another defeat now is simply painful. We have to be honest, we're simply making too many mistakes, and we have to work on that.

Kerim Alajbegovic

Match data

Line-ups & substitutions

FC Salzburg: Schlager © – Lainer, Gadou, Rasmussen, Krätzig (81' Trummer) – Yeo (63' Vertessen), Diabate, Kjaergaard (63' Kitano) – Baidoo (75' Bischoff), Ratkov (75' Onisiwo), Alajbegovic Ferencvaros: Dibusz – Gartenmann, Raemaekers, Cisse – Makreckis, Otvos, Kanchowsky (78' Keita), Zachariassen, Cadu (78' O'Dowda) – Varga (84' Levi), Dele (72' Joseph)

Goals: Baidoo (13'), Vertessen (72') - Varga (50'), Zachariassen (56'), Dele (58') Attendance: 8,342 Referee: Goga Kikacheishvili (GEO) Yellow cards: None - Zachariassen (65' foul), Raemaekers (81' foul), O'Dowda (90+4' unsporting behaviour)

Injury news

Not available were Mads Bidstrup (thigh), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), John Mellberg (knee), Jannik Schuster (ill), Valentin Sulzbacher (ankle) and Aleksa Terzic (ill).