Hard-fought win under the snow v Hartberg

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·25 November 2023

Hard-fought win under the snow v Hartberg

Nene scores late winner in 3-2 victory

We battled our way with all our might to a win against the visitors! In the 15th game week of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga, we took a home win against TSV Hartberg despite falling behind. Ratkov was clinical in front of goal, Gloukh showed his class by slotting the ball into the top corner while Nene proved to be the matchwinner at the Red Bull Arena.

Match summary

Gerhard Struber had to field a makeshift defence against Hartberg due to a few injuries: Daouda Guindo and Leandro Morgalla began as full-backs, while Amar Dedic came in to the centre of defence along with Strahinja Pavlovic. The snow was falling with temperatures around zero as we began to press high and play good passing football. TSV Hartberg sat deep in their own half while Petar Ratkov and Leandro Morgalla had our first good moments.

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There were eleven minutes on the clock when the visitors got the opening goal against the run of play. Christoph Lang played a short corner to Dominik Prokop, who crossed for Ibane Bowat to head striaght into the right corner of the net, leaving Alex Schlager chanceless. Mads Bidstrup was clearly annoyed at us falling behind, and he jumped in against Jürgen Heil to get shown a yellow card.

Our loanee Mamadou Sangare almost doubled the visitors' lead, but smashed the ball just over from distance, while we put more and more pressure on their goal. A quiet period towards the end of the first half saw play paused for several minutes as Donis Avdijaj had to be carried off the pitch (34'). When the game was restarted, Hartberg played their way into the danger area – and Dominik Frieser was sent free on goal, only for Alex Schlager to keep us in it with an incredible save (38').

With the pitch wet, we were able to play a series of quick passes before the break to create more danger. Oscar Gloukh sent a delicious chip over the Hartberg defence, and the ball found its way to Petar Ratkov. The Serb chested the ball skilfully and converted cooly to bring our Red Bulls level at 1-1 (45+4').

We braved the snowfall to take the lead just three minutes into the second half. Oscar Gloukh got the ball after the away goalkeeper parried it and sent it straight into the top right from the edge of the box via the inside of the post (48'). Our boys were sensing blood and wanted to seal the points with chances falling to Karim Konate (52') and Luka Sucic (53').

Our lead would not last for long. In the 56th minute, former Salzburg player Ousmane Diakite headed the ball in from a corner. With the snow bearing down, the game became disjointed and hard-fought, with Gerhard Struber sending fresh legs on for the final stages in Roko Simic, Nicolas Capaldo and Lucas Gourna-Douath (73').

Shortly after that, Guindo was denied after being accidentally teed up in acrobatic style by Diakite (76'). Hartberg defended our attacks until Dorgeles Nene stole the limelight. The substitute leapt to meet a Guindo cross and headed the ball straight in for a 3-2 win that sent the Red Bull Arena wild (85'). We therefore battled against the weather and from being 0-1 down to ultimately take a deserved win.

Views

It makes us happy that we got three points. We knew that it would be a difficult match, with Hartberg in great form right now. We didn't have the control we imagined for the whole match. We need to step up from set pieces in future to become more solid. We made a good start to the match and had lots of good moments at the start of the second half. We weren't able to always seize the momentum, as we weren't clinical with our chances. Despite everything, we have taken three points here, and that will do us all good as we know, of course, how we are positioned right now.

Gerhard Struber

You saw that Hartberg are a really good team, who pushed us all the way. We didn't do one or two things too well in the first half, but we were better in the second half. We should have avoided the two goals from set pieces, but we kept on battling back into the game. I am happy that we won! It is not easy at the moment, but you can see the spirit that we all have.

Alexander Schager

Line-up

Substitutions

Nene for Konate (58'), Simic for Ratkov (73'), Gourna-Douath for Gloukh (73'), Capaldo for Morgalla (73'), Diambou for Bidstrup (84')

Yellow cards

Bidstrup (14' foul), Dedic (45+6' foul), Pavlovic (90+3' unsporting behaviour)

Injury news

Our due to injuries were Fernando (adductors), Dijon Kameri (buttocks), Maurits Kjaergaard (shoulder), Sekou Koita (adductors), Bryan Okoh (thigh), Oumar Solet (thigh), Aleksa Terzic (adductors), Andreas Ulmer (ankle), Lukas Wallner (thigh) and Samson Baidoo (adductors).