Cup exit in semi-final

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·4 April 2024

Cup exit in semi-final

Out after seven-goal nail-biter

Concede four goals and you can't expect to win too many football matches. In a hard-fought UNIQA ÖFB Cup semi-final, we were beaten 3-4 by SK Sturm Graz - a defeat that is entirely on us. Now we need to give our all on Sunday to claim another big Austrian Bundesliga win!

Match summary

We took charge right from the word go as it looked likely to be another great evening! Daouda Guindo had the first shot of the day, and we raced into the lead from a set piece. Maurits Kjaergaard delivered another superb corner, which Flavius Daniliuc nodded on for Oumar Solet to slot into the net from short range (11')!

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Karim Konate could have made it 2-0 shortly afterwards, but we missed the chance to extend the lead. The visitors worked their way into the tie and levelled in the 25th minute. A fantastic ball through the defence from Kiteishvili left our backline chasing, and Horvat just had to knock the ball across to Böving for him to give us the lead. Having taken the lead, SK Sturm even eked out a slight advantage towards the end of the first half, while our Red Bulls lost their way a little. Only right at the end did we rally a little, but without threatening too much. At the start of the second period, Sturm Graz caught us out again and celebrated what they thought was the lead until an offside flag cut the celebrations short.

Just as we were working our way into the match – with Daniliuc having a chance to make it 2-1 – Graz grabbed a goal, and this time it counted. Horvat found too much space in our penalty area and turned the ball in (52'). Gerhard Struber reacted with a double change as Luka Sucic and Fernando were drafted in to enliven our attack. The play was evenly matched from that point until the fourth goal of the evening fell in the 72nd minute - and unfortunately it wasn't for our boys. A quick attack from the visitors that diverted the play from the right to the left cut us open and Schnegg slotted in from the edge of the box to make it 3-1 to Graz. There was no way our Red Bulls were giving up as they upped the tempo again. A wonderfully created Sucic goal (80') gave us hope of a comeback before the visitors sealed the deal. Geyrhofer was left with a free header from a corner and we were 4-2 down. We threw everything into it and a terrific strike from Aleksa Terzic brought us back into the game, but time ran out before we had any chances to equalise.

There is no time to rue our cup exit. This Sunday at 17:00 CEST, we are back at home in the ADMIRAL Bundesliga. Three points are firmly in our sights in the Austrian Klassiker against SK Rapid Vienna!

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Views

It was a very painful evening, but one we can really learn from! I felt we made a really good start, but as the game went on we lost our grip of the basics that make us so outstanding. Sturm came into it and took the momentum away from us. We weren't stable enough to defend and weren't able to generate the power on the break we normally have.

Gerhard Struber

It wasn't a great evening, for me too. It's painful. We were aiming to win the cup, especially after what happened last year. Life goes on, though, and we will try to work on a few things and do things better on Sunday.

Alex Schlager

Line-up

Substitutions

Simic for Ratkov (46'), Fernando for Konate (55'), Sucic for Bidstrup (55'), Koita for Solet (77'), Terzic for Kjaergaard (89')

Yellow cards

Ratkov (41' foul), Koita (90+2' foul)

Injury news

Not available for the match are Nicolas Capaldo (knee), Amar Dedic (injured on international duty), Timo Horn (stomach) and Leandro Morgalla (recovering), Lucas Gourna-Douath was suspended due to the red card on Sunday. Samson Baidoo is training with the team again after a long injury break.