Too little, too late against Altach

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·19 March 2023

Too little, too late against Altach

1-1 home draw

We finished the regular season of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga with a 1-1 draw against SCR Altach with a late flurry of chances not leading to a second goal. Even if we didn't get the win we wanted, we equalled our points record from the 2018/19 and 2021/22 seasons with the point today.

Match summary

There would be no guessing Altach are bottom of the table with the confidence and sense of purpose Miroslav Klose's team showed today - and they pressed us right from the word go.

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We managed to fashion early opportunities to take the lead though. Benjamin Sesko missed in a one-on-one against Andreas Jungdal, and shortly after that both Andi Ulmer and Bernardo were unable to put the ball into the net.

While the opening stages saw tempo and chances at either end, the game ebbed away a bit. The direction of travel was generally towards the Altach goal without too many openings resulting. The visitors' packed defensive ranks made sure of that.

The final few minutes before the break saw Altach gain the biggest chance yet as Nuhiu clipped the ball just wide from a quick attack (41'), before Oumar Solet pounced on a ball across the opposing area, only for the young Altach goalkeeper to pull off another strong save (41').

It therefore remained goalless at half-time in the Red Bull Arena - but things soon changed in the second period.

Lucas Gourna-Douath sent in the first sign of things to come with a drive from outside the box that went just off target (51'). Then the deadlock was broken, but at the wrong end. Manuel Thurnwald smashed a free-kick onto the crossbar, and Atdhe Nuhiu reacted well to bundle in for 1-0 (55').

Things had to be changed, and Matthias Jaissle reacted by bringing Noah Okafor and Amankwah Forson, with the youngster from Ghana having been on loan to Altach for the first half of the season. The 20-year-old performed well and almost made an immediate impact, with a dribble through the defence and shot over (62').

Altach dropped deeper and deeper, as we continued to seek a way through their rearguard effort. In the 83rd minute, Benji Sesko finally made our goal music sound! Okafor sent a cross high above the Altach defence, and the Slovenian converted clinically with his head. We had no time to lose and kept pressing – as we wanted that win!

We could have taken it too, with a continual wave of attacking pressure in stoppage time. Okafor and Adamu were both denied by Jungdal from close range, and another Sesko header rattled the crossbar. We scored just one goal from an expected goals tally of 3.21 and therefore have to be content with a single point at the end of the regular season.

The remaining fixtures in the championship round will be arranged in the coming days, and our channels will keep you up to date on them.

Table after regular season (before points are divided)

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We definitely wanted more than that. When we fell behind, we pressed up a gear and got the equaliser. We tried then to win it, but it just wouldn't go in. It's a draw we will have to take, and now we have the championship group matches to come!

Andreas Ulmer

I'm extremely disappointed about the draw, on the whole. There were other chances I should have used. We had a lot of opportunities, but sometimes they just won't go in. We gave everything, didn't play badly, and their goalkeeper had one of the days of his life - it just wasn't our day.

Benjamin Sesko

Line-up

Injury news

Fernando (back), Daouda Guindo (knee), Justin Omoregie (back), Jerome Onguene (toe), Luka Sucic (knee) and Samson Tijani (leg) were out injured.
Amar Dedic and Strahinja Pavlovic were out suspended.