5-0! Red Bulls make statement with home opener | OneFootball

Attacking fury unleashed on GAK

Our boys took their first win in the new ADMIRAL Bundesliga season in their first home match. A 5-0 success against GAK provided an emphatic statement, with the sending off of Fofana after a serious foul on Sota Kitano in the 23rd minute helping us along the way.

The win is not only good for our points' balance but also for our confidence ahead of the second leg of our UEFA Champions League qualifier on Tuesday against Club Brugge, in which we want to overturn a 0-1 deficit.

Match summary

The visitors were very passive from the start, seeking instead to prevent us from playing football as best they could. Adam Daghim almost spoiled their plan early on when the ball fell at his feet in the danger zone in the sixth minute, but he pulled his shot wide of the goal. GAK had their first and only chance in front of Alex Schlager's goal in the 11th minute when Alex Schlager was called into action, but despite getting into a good shooting position, they were unable to trouble our keeper.

The first really big moment of the match was one we would definitely have preferred not to see: GAK player Fofana took out Sota Kitano with a brutally hard tackle on his ankle. The referee initially only gave him a yellow card, but was corrected by VAR and ultimately showed a red (24'). That was no consolation to  our Japanese attack talent, who had to be stretchered off the pitch...

Mads Bidstrup struck the right tone with the team and the fans – now was the time to step up! With an extra man on the field, we increased the tempo, now playing more of a 4-3-3 formation, while GAK dug in even deeper. Daghim had a superb chance to score from close range (34'), but the Dane miscued his effort. Just a few moments later, Alajbegovic unleashed a thunderbolt from distance that whizzed just past Meierhofer's goal – a shame, but our youngster had not had the last word yet!

In stoppage time at the end of the first half, our summer signing saw another chance from a similar position, and this time the ball found the back of the net when it flew into the far corner with full force after travelling almost 20 metres (45+6').

We soon had reason to celebrate again after the restart. Our boys bamboozled GAK with an outstanding attack that Nene sliced through the opposing defence with a perfect through ball, allowing Kjaergaard to casually chip in for a 2–0 lead (56').

The chances continued to come every minute. First from Ratkov after Alajbegovic's cross (58'), then Nene with a long-range shot (64') and Kjaergaard in the penalty area (67'). The third goal seemed inevitable. The ten men of GAK had little or nothing to offer in response.

With 15 minutes still on the clock, the ball was in the net again, this time Trummer powered down the wing and set up Vertessen, who began the final flourish in our Bundesliga home opener (76'). After a handball by an opponent, Ratkov made it 4-0 from the penalty spot (81'), before Vertessen completed his brace to make it 5-0 (82').

Now we're heading to Belgium with plenty of momentum behind us, where we face Club Brugge in the third (and penultimate) qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League after losing 1-0 in the first leg. You can cheer us on from home in Austria by watching on ServusTV or ServusTV On, with kick-off at 19:30.

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Thomas Letsch

Kerim Alajbegovic

Match details

Line-ups & substitutions

FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager – Terzic, Rasmussen, Schuster, Lainer (67' Trummer) – Diabate (46' Nene), Bidstrup © (73' Diambou) – Kitano (25' Kjaergaard), Alajbegovic – Ratkov, Daghim (46' Vertessen)

Grazer AK: Meierhofer – Owusu, Graf, Vraa-Jensen (62' Pines) – Italiano (84' Schiestl), Fofana, Koch, Frieser – Cipot (27' Satin), Maderner © (27' Jano), Harakate (46' Hofleitner)

Goals: Alajbegovic (45+6'), Kjaergaard (56'), Vertessen (76'/82'), Ratkov (81' pen) Attendance: 7,544 Referee: Daniel Pfister Yellow cards: Daghim (45'+7) - Hofleitner (46') Red card: Fofana (24')

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