Final friendly ends in defeat

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·18 de julho de 2025

Final friendly ends in defeat

1-2 loss to The Rams

Our boys lost their final friendly match against English Championship side Derby County 1-2 with Adam Daghim scoring our goal.

Match summary

In our second and final friendly match before we start the new season on Wednesday, Thomas Letsch's side had their English opponents well under control for large periods. After a dominant start, Joane Gadou had our first good opportunity following a Kjaergaard corner (11'). The young central defender unfortunately then managed to pave the way for us going behind as his misplaced backpass set up Blackett-Taylor's strike.

Vídeos OneFootball

Our lads - who had Kjaergaard back in the starting line-up after a minor injury along with Adam Daghim, John Mellberg and Jannik Schuster - tried to raise the tempo. A header from Dorgeles Nene and shot from Oscar Gloukh failed to lead to a way through for our side. Derby County proved to be more efficient via Kayden Jackson as the big striker headed to put the English side 2-0 up on another break.

Our Red Bulls made nine changes for the second half (with Edmund Baidoo replacing the injured Yorbe Vertessen) and raced out of the traps, with Adam Daghim converting from a Baidoo pass shortly after the restart to grab a goal back (48'). Seven minutes later we almost struck again as Edmund Baidoo rattled the crossbar from a Daghim pass.

After the Championship side made four changes, the game quietened down until three chances fell in the 82nd minute (to Alajbegovic, Onisiwo and Kitano). Our final chance to level at 2-2 fell to Bobby Clark, who rifled over, but it was just not meant to be.

Line-up

Schlager; Lainer (46' Trummer), Gadou (46' Schuster), Rasmussen (46' Mellberg), Krätzig (46' Traore/75' Aguilar); Nene (46' Daghim), Bidstrup (46' Diabate), Kjaergaard (46' Diambou/75' Clark), Gloukh (46' Kitano); Vertessen (32' Baidoo/65' Alajbegovic), Ratkov (46' Onisiwo)

Referee

Marina Zechner

Other things to note:

• Having missed the match against Qarabag due to minor injuries, Adam Daghim, Maurits Kjaergaard and John Mellberg (now wearing the shirt number 4 instead of 36) along with Jannik Schuster were back in the squad.

• Our due to injury are Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee), Valentin Sulzbacher (thigh), Aleksa Terzic (ill) and Moussa Yeo (knee).

• FC Liefering youngster Lassina Traore was in our squad.

• Austria's Andreas Weimann, in the Derby County squad, did not appear today due to a lack of training.

• There will be no training tomorrow (Saturday) with the next session on Sunday morning.

Views

We would have liked to have taken a win in the final friendly before it all gets started, of course. We can't be pleased with the first-half. That wasn't good from us, and everyone involved knows that. The youngsters really stepped on the gas at the start of the second period and again at the very end. We were more dynamic. There are lots of things we learned again today, which is why you play these kind of matches.

Thomas Letsch

We didn't get into the game in the first half, in particular, and were too slow on the whole. It got better after the break, and we had some really good phases. It wasn't a great friendly match from us, and we have to learn from it. The pre-season is over, and now we have to focus on the UEFA Champions League qualifying.

Tim Trummer