Late Porto blow denies deserved point

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·25 September 2025

Late Porto blow denies deserved point

0-1 defeat to open UEFA Europa League

We had passion, intensity and energy - our first league phase match in the UEFA Europa League had everything - almost. We made a great start, dominating at times, but we ended up beaten 0-1 by FC Porto due to a Gomes effort from distance in stoppage time.

Match summary

We showed our determination from the start to go toe-to-toe with the Portuguese leaders.

Video OneFootball

The visitors hit the crossbar from an early corner (3'), but our boys were otherwise solid at the back and hungry in attack. After around ten minutes of play we ramped the tempo up with Ratkov having a chance to take the lead but forcing a strong save from Costa, who already appeared beaten (11'). Diabate (13') and Bidstrup (25') had efforts that kept the fans on the edge of their seats, but a goal to reflect our dominance did not want to come. The visitors had a few moments in which they showed their class, and just before the half-hour mark we had a dangerous situation to contend with, but Schlager and Rasmussen blocked Porto's best efforts so far and it remained goalless at half-time. We continued to set the tone after the restart. By winning the ball and heading forward, our boys created plenty of good situations. We thought we could celebrate in the 58th minute, when Ratkov turned the ball in, but VAR spoiled the fun by finding an offisde from Yeo in the build-up.

It remained a determined and battling showing from our Red Bulls right to the end - and our boys deserved a winner. The best chance for that fell to Vertessen when sprinting through on goal after a perfect through ball from Kitano, but the Belgian's chip just went a fraction wide. A point against FC Porto would have counted as a good result before kick-off, but it was taken away from us just when we had it in our grasp. In the final minute of stoppage time, Gomes curled the ball from distance into the top corner past the gobsmacked Alex Schlager, and we lost 0-1 (90+3'). The worst possible end after a strong showing! We go again this Sunday in the ADMIRAL Bundesliga away to WSG Tirol before our Europa League clash at Olympique Lyon next Thursday.

Views

What happened in the final minute is simply painful. We're extremely disappointed with the result, but on the other hand, we put in a brilliant performance as a team. We brought everything we'd been accused of lacking – partly rightly so – to the pitch. We defended with discipline, stuck together, and gave it our all. I'm extremely proud of the team for what they showed on the pitch today.

Thomas Letsch

We actually played a really good game, and I'm proud of the team's performance. This energy, this concentration, and the willingness of everyone to support each other must be the foundation. That's exactly what we need to take with us from today.

Stefan Lainer

What a shame! If you create chances up front—we should have put one or two of them over in—the game obviously goes in a different direction. The way we performed is what the fans expect! We have to play that way in the league, too. Things would look different then. We can still take a lot from this.

Karim Onisiwo

Match data

Line-ups & substitutions

FC Salzburg: Schlager – Lainer, Gadou, Rasmussen, Terzic – Bidstrup © (90.+2 Gourna-Douath), Diabate – Yeo (65. Onisiwo), Alajbegovic (65. Kjaergaard) – Baidoo (65. Kitano), Ratkov (65. Vertessen) FC Porto: Costa © – Rosario, Bednarek, Kiwior, Zaidu (53. Fernandes) – Froholdt, Varela (66. Mora), Veiga (53. Moura) – Pepe (53. Gomes), Samu (77. Gül), Sainz

Goal: Gomes (90.+3) Attendance: 9,993 Referee: Vassilis Fotias (GRE) Yellow cards: Yeo (16./Foul), CEO for Sport Schröder (69./Dissent), Rasmussen (80./Foul), Vertessen (86./Dissent) - Gomes (90.+3/Unsporting behaviour) Red card: Assistant coach Wissing (86./Dissent)

Injury news

Not available were Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), John Mellberg (knee) and Valentin Sulzbacher (ankle).
Clement Bischoff was out suspended after being shown a red card for Bröndby IF in UEFA Conference League qualifying.
Jannik Schuster was ill. Rocco Zikovic was therefore promoted from the B list for UEFA Europa League matches.