Set piece blow after top start in Altach

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·30 de novembro de 2025

Set piece blow after top start in Altach

Hard-fought battle ends all square

Despite temperatures around freezing, our boys needed no time to get going - but were knocked out of their stride by an equaliser. We ultimately had to be content with a 1-1 draw at SCR Altach.

Match summary

Our attack dominated the opening phase as we immediately went on the front foot. As early as the 7th minute, the first excellent opportunity arose: Yorbe Vertessen dispossessed a centre-back and raced towards Stojanovic's goal, but his shot curled just wide of the far post. Only three minutes later, another chance came when Frans Krätzig tested the Altach goalkeeper.

Vídeos OneFootball

In the 12th minute, the breakthrough finally came: Petar Ratkov converted the third high-quality opportunity of the day to give us a deserved lead. Once again, it was the energetic Vertessen who first won the ball in the danger zone and then perfectly set up his Serbian attacking partner.

The home side subsequently showed courage, but remained largely ineffective against our well-organised defence. All of Altach's chances resulted from set pieces – including the equaliser. After a header from a free kick was saved in the 15th minute (Alex Schlager made a confident save), the equaliser finally came in the 26th minute as Koller rose highest from a corner and headed home powerfully, giving our keeper no chance.

After the equaliser, both teams largely cancelled each other out. The quality and quantity of scoring opportunities decreased significantly compared to the opening stages, and the teams went into the break with the score at 1-1.

The second half began quietly. That changed abruptly in the 54th minute as we got a lucky break when Altach's Oswald unleashed a spectacular long-range shot that kissed the inside of our post, but fortunately only rebounded and didn't find its way into the net.

Our first real attacking move of any note in the second half didn't come until the 60th minute. After a great combination move, Moussa Yeo headed just wide of the Altach goal. Shortly afterwards, a controversial incident occurred in the penalty area (65'): Ratkov was caught on the shin by Ingolitsch (the Altach coach's brother) during a challenge, but referee Ciochirca refused to award a penalty and saw no reason to consult VAR. Overall, we were only able to create a few truly dangerous chances, despite going all out for a win at the end of the match with the introduction of the two Karims (Konate and Onisiwo). The final offensive push came from the home side, however. First, Hrstic missed the best chance to score the winning goal after a misplaced pass by Gadou let to him finding himself completely unmarked in front of Schlager (80'), before SCR Altach threatened again in stoppage time.

Ultimately, however, neither team managed to land a late blow, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Statements

It's a clear penalty. Apart from the young man in the VAR room and the refereeing team, I haven't heard anyone say 'no penalty.' That would have made it a different game. That's why I'm furious. That doesn't explain everything though, because we had enough chances to win the game – we take full responsibility for that.

Thomas Letsch

Ultimately, it's so often the case that if you don't put your chances away and then concede a goal, it becomes difficult to win games. Maybe we can't maintain our concentration for 90 minutes - these are obviously intense weeks. But at the end of the day, the truth is on the pitch – and we're currently not managing to win games there. We have to change that.

Alex Schlager

We dropped two points. We started well, then conceded a goal from a set piece. In the second half, we have to take one of our chances. We know where we need to start and what we need to work on. We need to get back into a good rhythm as quickly as possible, but the good news is that we're playing again next week. We want to get the three points then to get back on track.

Frans Krätzig

Match summary

Line-ups & substitutions

SCR Altach: Stojanovic © – Ingolitsch, Zech, Koller, Ouedraogo – Milojevic (60. Jäger), Oswald (73. Demaku), Bähre, Massombo – Mustapha (73. Hrstic), Diawara (73. Fetahu) FC Red Bull Salzburg: Schlager – Trummer, Gadou, Schuster, Krätzig – Bidstrup ©, Diabate (83. Konate) – Vertessen (76. Onisiwo), Alajbegovic (59. Baidoo), Bischoff (46. Yeo) – Ratkov Goals: Koller (26.) - Ratkov (12.) Attendance: 4,867 Schiedsrichter: Christian-Petru Ciochirca Referee: Zech (85./Foul) bzw. Diabate (23./Foul), Bidstrup (80./Foul) as well as in the coaching team Junuzovic (67./Dissent), Pereira (67./Dissent), Hesse (67./Dissent)

Injury news

Not available for the match were Lucas Gourna-Douath (knee), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Sota Kitano (thigh), Maurits Kjaergaard (calf), John Mellberg (knee) and Christian Zawieschitzky (pelvis).