Win in first friendly match

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·15 July 2025

Win in first friendly match

2-1 success in Pinzgau

It wasn't quite a canter, but we won against the Riders of FK Qarabag: Our boys took a 2-1 win in their first friendly match of the pre-season against the Azerbaijan champions - with Sota Kitano and Edmund Baidoo sealing the success in Zell am See.

Match summary

The 12-time champions from Azerbaijan are starting the season in a similar way to our Red Bulls, with UEFA Champions League qualifying next week against the winners of the all-Irish clash between Shelbourne and Linfield. Qarabag showed they are ready for the new season with a pair of friendly matches against FC Twente, in which they won one and lost one.

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The first good opportunity fell to our side, with new signing Alajbegovic going close from 20 yards out in his first appearance for our club (11'). A little later, his team-mate Yorbe Vertessen smashed the ball over from a tight angle at close-range. As the first half continued, our boys increased the pressure on the Champions League hopefuls and eventually took the lead. A quick attack launched via Frans Krätzig and Alajbegovic was drilled in elegantly by Sota Kitano to put us 1-0 up (29').

Three minutes later, Mamady Diambou sent an acrobatic effort just over. A mistake going forward led to a surprising equaliser as Akhundzada charged through and scored (42').

Our boys continued to dominate the play after the break and retook the lead. Edmund Baidoo, who was introduced at the break, won the ball with pressing and smashed in for 2-1 (55'). Another substitute, Enrique Aguilar, had the next opportunity, but was denied when one-on-one with the Qarabag goalie (70'). Thomas Letsch made a whole host of changes in the second half, with only Alexander Schlager playing the full 90 minutes and being by far the most experienced player in our ranks at full-time.

Line-up

Schlager; Lainer (57' Trummer), Rasmussen (67' Moswitzer), Gadou (67' Zikovic), Krätzig (57' Terzic); Kitano (59' Aguilar), Bidstrup (46' Diabate), Diambou (67' Lukic), Alajbegovic (59' Nene); Vertessen (46' E. Baidoo), Onisiwo (46' Ratkov)

Referee

Philipp Mayer

Other things to note:

• Not available due to injury today were Adam Daghim (ankle), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Maurits Kjaergaard (thigh), Karim Konate (knee), John Mellberg (ill), Jannik Schuster (knee), Valentin Sulzbacher (thigh) and Moussa Yeo (knee). Samson Baidoo (in contract discussions abroad), Bobby Clark and Oscar Gloukh (short of training) were also not in action.

• Liefering youngsters Oliver Lukic, Marcel Moswitzer and Rocco Zikovic also appeared.

• There will be additional training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday before a friendly match on Friday against Derby County (18:00 CEST, SAK-Platz, live stream on redbullsalzburg.at and ServusTV ON).

Views

We wanted to treat the two friendly matches before Brann like competitive games, so it was important to win today. I think we did a lot of things well. We made life difficult for ourselves though as we gave the ball away cheaply a number of times and allowed our opponents into the game. The bottom line is that it was a good friendly match against a Champions League outfit, which gave us lots of findings. A few boys appeared who haven't played too much recently. The match served its purpose. Now we have to make the most also of the friendly match against Derby County on Friday. It will all be getting serious after that.

Thomas Letsch

It was great for me to finally get to play 90 minutes for the first time in such a while. As a footballer you live for that, so I'm delighted to be back on the pitch. We came here to win the friendly match, get a good feeling and keep our buzz from the Club World Cup - as we will be in Champions League action next week. It is important that we get some positive moments, which we managed today. We can definitely do a lot of things better, but it feels good. We can build on this.

Alex Schlager