No chance against PSG

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·10 December 2024

No chance against PSG

Home defeat to star-studded outfit

Our Red Bulls were unable to offer serious resistance to the French champions, and were beaten 0-3 with goals from Ramos, Mendes and Doue. PSG proved to be clinical in the second half, in particular.

Match summary

With five changes to the side that started our last Champions League clash in Leverkusen - some due to injury and others tactical - our boys began the game chasing a strong PSG outfit. Pep Lijnders' side stood their ground well and didn't allow any dangerous attacks until the tenth minute, when Alex Schlager had to make two stops - Hakimi had a go from distance and was saved before Schlager got up to turn a header from Ramos over the bar. Lee and Ruiz also threatened, with Schlager denying the latter well too.

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We first threatened at the other end of the field after 22 minutes. Dorgeles Nene beat his marker and took aim from a promising position but sent the ball wide (22'). The visitors threatened again with Ramos curling the ball without enough power following a well-timed pass from Hakimi – and Alex was again able to stop the effort.

The opening goal finally came when Ramos slid to turn the ball into an empty net at the far post after Hakimi played the ball across the goalmouth (30'). It remained 1-1 for PSG at the break.

When we restarted, it was our boys who were the first to threaten. As the second half progressed, however, Luis Enrique's charges increasingly took control again - without creating anything by the hour mark.

While our Red Bulls continued to defend well, the Parisians were threatened here and there - like in the 72nd minute, when Mendes took the ball, skipped past both Sammy Baidoo and Mads Bidstrup, and finished for 2-0.

There was very little for Donnarumma to do at the other end, with Daouda Guindo getting into a promising position, although Daghim's pass didn't reach him (77'). The attacks kept on coming on our boys' target as Hakimi played a one-two with Lee and Doue was in space to place a shot perfectly into the corner (85'). Amar Dedic and Schlager had to be thanked in the end for PSG not racking up a bigger score.

The 0-3 defeat sees our Red Bulls remain towards the bottom of the league stage table with three points. We now have to turn our attention to finishing well before the winter break this Saturday (14 December) as we host Austria Klagenfurt aiming to take points and climb up the table.

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They have real quality, and we didn't find our way into the play, even if we were better organised for long stretches of the second half. In the moments we won the ball, we should have kept it better and for longer. Then you have to keep running after them, and it gets even harder. The boys battled and ran so much. We have to be better though, we need to develop - and we will.

Pepijn Lijnders

You can't accuse anyone in the team of not giving their all, especially when you consider how many players we had unavailable. PSG were much better than us though. We had the occasional moment or two on the break, and you can't lose any more clearly than that. We are being punished a lot at the moment for all the mistakes we make. We will try to learn from the defeat. We have an even more important match on Saturday - we all need to be aware of that. We want to take three points for our fans in that.

Alex Schlager

Line-up

Substitutions

Daghim for Ratkov (57'), Clark for Yeo (57'), Bajcetic for Gourna-Douath (66'), Terzic for Gloukh (80'), Kawamura for Bidstrup (80')

Yellow cards

Guindo (35' unsporting behaviour), Gourna-Douath (53' foul), Capaldo (75' foul)

Injury news

Not available for the match were Fernando (thigh), Maurits Kjaergaard (ankle), Karim Konate (knee), Leandro Morgalla (thigh) and Kamil Piatkowski (thigh). Janis Blaswich recently returned to training after injury and was not an option for the squad.