Disappointing night in Klagenfurt

FC Red Bull Salzburg

·24 April 2024

Disappointing night in Klagenfurt

2-0 half-time lead overturned

An incident-packed encounter against SK Austria Klagenfurt ended in a 3-4 defeat for our boys. Despite taking a 2-0 lead, we therefore missed out on the chance to take important points for the title race in the 28th matchday of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga.

Match summary

Onur Cinel's attacking approach was carried by the same pair who lit up the first encounter. Karim Konate charged at the Klagenfurt defence and cut the ball across to Oscar Gloukh – our attacking jewel's effort was saved by Phillip Menzel, however (3').

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Shortly after that, we got our breakthrough - after Konate won the ball in his own half, he played a superb one-two with Gloukh, before the ball came back to the Ivorian. Our striker wasted no time in cutting inside past a defender and slotting the ball into the bottom left corner of the net (10').

The hosts tried to respond, before Gloukh and Konate pounced again. After a brave Daniliuc solo charge on the right, the ball fell to Oscar Gloukh, who played a brilliant backheel through to the Ivorian striker – Konate seized on the chance with a fantastic finish that made it 2-0 (18').

The hosts then upped the pace and tried to create more chances. Alex Schlager did well to dive to his near post and prevent Klagenfurt pouncing from a corner (35'). A superb Konate pass presented Roko Simic with a great opportunity, but he hit the post when through on goal (38'). Our Red Bulls therefore went into the break with a two-goal lead.

After the players returned to the field, Strahinja Pavlovic did his best to keep the hosts from pulling a goal back, but the goal came regardless. Klagenfurt full-back Solomon Bonnah profited from a moment of disorder in our defence and pounced from a tight angle to make it 1-2 (51').

Peter Pacult's side scented blood and worked their way back on level terms. Oumar Solet was unfortunate to see his clearance land at the feet of Andy Irving before he accidentally directed the shot into the net for 2-2 (63').

Things then just went from bad to worse - as the ball fell to Irving on the edge of the box, and he hammered home an effort from long range to put his side 3-2 in front (74').

As if that wasn't enough, substitute Lucas Gourna-Douath then brought an opponent down in the penalty area - and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Schlager had no hope of stopping Irving's spot kick and now we were 4-2 down (85'). A Pavlovic header in the 90th minute made it 3-4, but there was no salvaging a result.

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It's disappointing. We didn't play well over the full 90 minutes, also not in the first half, even if we were leading. That has a lot to do with our intensity and energy, especially off the ball. The result reflects the way the game went. Klagenfurt deservedly won. We have to analyse well what didn't work today.

Onur Cinel

The way in which we collapsed was not worthy of a title contender. We did well in the first half, and took a 2-0 lead into the break, even though the performance didn't match that. That comes back to bite you over the whole match. Klagenfurt really battled for a win. We have to lift ourselves up for Sunday now, as we have an important match ahead of us!

Alexander Schlager

Line-up

Substitutions

Koita for Simic (59'), Gourna-Douath for Forson (59'), Nene for Diambou (78'), Ratkov for Konate (78'), Terzic for Daniliuc (86')

Yellow card

Pavlovic (87' dissent)

Injury news

Not available for the match were Mads Bidstrup (shoulder), Nicolas Capaldo (knee), Amar Dedic (calf), Fernando (thigh), Maurits Kjaergaard (thigh), Leandro Morgalla (recovering) and Andreas Ulmer (calf).