Austrian Klassiker in year's final league tie

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·7 December 2023

Austrian Klassiker in year's final league tie

Away at SK Rapid Vienna

Before the ADMIRAL Bundesliga heads on its winter break, our Red Bulls will be on the road to Vienna for an Austrian Klassiker in the 17th matchday of the season. We play away at SK Rapid Vienna on Saturday 9 December at 14:30 CET.

Rapid are likely to be less fresh after playing a rearranged match v WSG Tirol on Tuesday after the heavy snowfall last weekend. New Rapid coach Robert Klauß was able to win his second game in charge, albeit the Viennese side were left fretting after a late goal on the freezing night - meaning it was a narrow 2-1 victory in the end.

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The side currently sixth face a few selection issues also ahead of the tie. Terence Kongolo saw a straight red card shortly before the final whistle in Innsbruck and is suspended. Moritz Oswald suffered a hand injury last week and is also out. Our injury situation has been improving a bit in recent weeks, but we will still be without a few Red Bulls.

Our record in recent years gives us plenty of cause for optimism on Sunday. Our meetings with the Green and Whites have often been tough battles, but our boys almost always manage to find a way to win. That was certainly the case in the first meeting of the season when Roko Simic hit a brace and we won 2-0. We have won a whopping 14 of our 17 most recent encounters, with three draws - and our last defeat against the Green and Whites came way back in February 2019!

A success would be useful too to lift spirits ahead of our European final on Tuesday 12 December when we host Benfica at the Red Bull Arena at 21:00 (ticket info).

Anyone who wants to support us in Vienna at the weekend can still get tickets for the away sector at the stadium. All the info on those travelling to support us away can be found via the link below. You can also follow live text updates on our web page or take out a Sky X rolling monthly subscription.

to the away info

Also worth knowing …

Our boys are unbeaten in 23 Bundesliga away matches (18 wins and five draws), equalling the record set by Wacker Innsbruck (23 matches from October 1988 to February 1990) with a 0-0 draw at Austria Vienna.
We have kept nine clean sheets in our first 16 Bundesliga encounters - something our Red Bulls have never bettered at this stage of the season (also nine in 2006, 2010 and 2022).
SK Rapid Vienna won two Bundesliga matches in a row for the first time - after their success at Tirol (and 1-0 win the week previously against Blau-Weiß Linz).

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Injury news

Not available for the match are Maurits Kjaergaard (shoulder), Oumar Solet (thigh) and Aleksa Terzic (adductors).
Strahinja Pavlovic (who suffered thigh problems in the Real Sociedad match) is a doubt.
Bryan Okoh is back in training after a long injury break. Fernando is training with the team again.

Views

Matches against Rapid are always very special, and we can expect a tough battle on very different levels. These kind of matches are an important and exciting part of the learning process for our young team, and we want to do well to keep our away run going. Our aim is to be league leaders going into the winter break.

Gerhard Struber

The final league match of the year will test us all the way again as Rapid are in form. We have to be ready for a difficult match on Saturday and give our all with everything we have. We are determined to finish the league season with three points and stay on top of the table.

Nicolas Capaldo