It was the third competitive defeat in a row for coach Pepijn Lijnders’ team. While Leverkusen practically has promotion to the knockout phase in their pocket with ten points from five games, Salzburg need a small miracle.
Austria’s runner-up was dismantled according to every trick in the book in front of 30,000 spectators in the BayArena. Florian Wirtz scored twice (8th/penalty, 30th). Alejandro Grimaldo (11th), Patrik Schick (61st) and Aleix Garcia (72nd) were successful. For Salzburg it was the third-highest defeat since Red Bull joined in 2005. In the Bundesliga this season they had already lost 5-0 against defending champions Sturm Graz and lost 4-0 at home against Stade Brest in the Champions League.
Bulls overwhelmed from the start
Lijnders used a similar formation to the one in the 3-1 surprise win at Feyenoord Rotterdam three weeks ago. The Leverkusen team did not notice the absence of six potential starting eleven players, including top striker Victor Boniface and DFB team kicker Jonas Hofmann. Star coach Xabi Alonso’s team put Salzburg under pressure early on, goalie Alexander Schlager had to fish a Wirtz shot from the far corner after less than 90 seconds.
The Bulls found it extremely difficult to play out. This was followed by one low blow after another: After a shot from Granit Wirtz hit the right cross corner safely. Seconds later, Baidoo lost the ball to Schick in the penalty area, but Schlager guessed correctly when the Boniface representative crossed the ball.
Knee injury to Konate
Grimaldo sank a free kick from a half-left position into the left corner. Two minutes later, Karim Konate grabbed his knee without any outside influence and went to the ground. Salzburg’s one-striker, who scored twice in Rotterdam, had to leave the field with a suspected cruciate ligament tear. According to the club, an imaging diagnosis will follow on Wednesday.
The best Salzburg player on the pitch was Schlager. The ÖFB goalie parried a mistake from Aleksa Terzic against Schick (26′) and a minute later also a shot from Xhaka (27′). He was powerless for Wirtz’s second goal. The young German star showed his extra class on the ball and was able to calmly go around three Salzburg players and slot them into the far corner. Jeremie Frimpong (36th) and Exequiel Palacios (45th) could have made it 4-0 before the break, but failed due to Schlager.
After the break, Frimpong delivered an impressive cross to Schick, who scored the first CL goal of his career. Wirtz was annoyed that he hadn’t scored a third goal long ago after rolling the ball just past the far corner (64′). Schlager had to intervene against substitute Garcia (68th). Four minutes later the Spaniard struck after Wirtz found him in the backcourt. On the other side, shots from Amar Dedic (45th + 1, 82nd) were the most dangerous actions.
CL opponents are not getting any easier
After five CL rounds, Salzburg still has three points – and an enormously negative goal difference of 3:15. With the exception of the Rotterdam outlier, all games were lost to zero. The Bulls’ next chance for a surprise comes on December 10th at home against Paris Saint-Germain. In the new year, the new league phase of the premier class will be away against Real Madrid (January 22nd) and at home against Atletico Madrid (January 29th).
