Our debut on the world stage

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·16 de junio de 2025

Our debut on the world stage

Club World Cup opener v CF Pachuca

It is hard to believe, but the reality is finally upon us - our Red Bulls are ready for action in the FIFA Club World Cup in the USA! While just seven years ago we were dreaming of one day taking part in the UEFA Champions League, we became regulars in the competition and gained enough coefficient points over the past four seasons to qualify for the biggest tournament in club football.

We are to contest our first Club World Cup game this Wednesday 18 June at 18:00 local time (midnight CEST) against CF Pachuca, the oldest football team in Mexico (to the opposition portrait). The game will be played in front of around 26,000 fans at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati (Ohio), which has even been recognised by UNESCO. You can find out more on our first venue in our World Cup travel guide.

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The exciting thing about the Club World Cup is that the opponents and their respective strength are difficult to gauge. One idea perhaps is that Pachuca faced our European group stage opponents Real Madrid not so long ago. In the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup, the Mexicans were beaten but not humiliated by Real in a 0-3 loss. In the squad of Los Tuzos are a few names that European football followers might be familiar with, particularly in attack. Oussama Idrissi and Salomon Rondon are a real threat with their experience, while Brazilian youngster John Kennedy is also one to watch. 39-year-old captain Gustavo Cabral provides some stability in defence. One thing that isn't so stable is the coaching position at all three of our group stage opponents, as all three are going into the tournament with a new man in charge. CF Pachuca parted with Guillermo Jorge Almada at the end of May, and Jaime Lozano has taken the reins for the Club World Cup. He won the CONCACAF Gold Cup as interim coach of the Mexican national team in 2023.

It remains to be seen if he can make a similarly successful start to his role at Pachuca, but we will do everything to prevent that by taking three points to start with, if we can.

Stream our opener v Pachuca live & for free!

Streaming service DAZN is broadcasting our match against Pachuca late on Wednesday and all other matches in the FIFA Club World Cup live and for free! No subscription of any kind is required, but you just have to set up a free account. After the final whistle, you can also see the game in full.

register now!

Anyone wanting a different way to follow the match so late at night can follow live text updates on our website as well as the match report shortly after full-time. From 10:00 CEST Austrian time the following morning, there are also free RBS TV highlights of our matches!

Injury news

Not available for the match are Alexander Schlager (wrist) and Moussa Yeo (knee).

Views

Our sense of anticipation heading into the Club World Cup has been there for a long time and is increasing day by day. We are catching the fever. Pachuca are a club that are real giants on this continent. They usually play very intensively and determinedly. Our preparations for the match were also made more difficult by Pachuca changing coaches. They showed in a friendly recently that they can defend very compactly and have some good footballers as well as being well organised. We want to show what we are capable of and that we can start the tournament well.

Thomas Letsch

We are definitely facing a good team that has a new coach and is therefore a bit of an unknown quantity. That is also the attraction of the tournament - to be facing clubs you don't know so well. I am doing very well already at FC Red Bull Salzburg. The trip to the Club World Cup is definitely helping me to integrate into the team. We are playing in a tournament, and my aim is to go as far as we possibly can. I want to help my team as best as possible in that.

Frans Krätzig