Oscar Gloukh was the decisive man in the deserved 2-0 (1-0) against Vienna Austria on Saturday with his brace (10th/foul penalty, 88th). Coach Pepijn Lijnders’ team still showed a promising performance three days before the game against Stade Brest. After losing points, Salzburg is at the top of the table.
With two games less than their direct competitors Sturm and Rapid, the third-placed runner-up is three points behind the Graz team in front. The series against a favorite opponent in the league held. Salzburg remained unbeaten against Austria in the 19th league game in a row and achieved their 15th win. After the unsuccessful hat-trick against Rapid (1:2), Sturm Graz (2:2) and Salzburg, the Viennese now only have nine points from eight rounds.
Austria with a good start
Salzburg went into their first home game in a month with an impressive series against Austria, but lacking form. We recently failed to win against Rapid and WSG Tirol. The guests, who arrived with Philipp Wiesinger in the experienced three-man defense with Aleksandar Dragovic and Lucas Galvao, started well. Nik Prelec wasted what was actually a good chance on the counterattack; a shot from Dominik Fitz was blocked. After ten minutes, Salzburg was still ahead. Abubakr Barry got on Nene Dorgeles’ foot after the Purples defense failed to clear a ball in multiple attempts. Gloukh started from the spot and scored safely.
Austria wanted to remain unimpressed. Salzburg continued to offer rooms but had problems with security. Prelec got past Kamil Piatkowski, but his pass to Maurice Malone failed. After a long Dragovic pass, Malone was significantly faster than Piatkowski, but failed to equalize in sight due to goalkeeper Janis Blaswich’s foot defense (38th). Barry, who had injured his knee after a collision, was no longer part of Stephan Helm’s team; Moritz Wels came into the game in his place. Salzburg was dominant, but largely harmless offensively until the break. Only a shot from Nene from a tight angle (23rd) was remembered.
Gloukh made the decision
After the break, the Lijnders team visibly tried to pick things up again in front of 10,000 spectators. Samuel Sahin-Radlinger had to stretch for a long-range shot from Amar Dedic (54th), Karim Konate narrowly missed a cross with his head (60th). Austria was primarily occupied with defensive tasks, and the counter-attacks launched in the first 45 minutes failed to materialize. The favorites almost managed to break free once, but Malone was unable to put substitute Marko Raguz in the spotlight with a quarter of an hour to go.
An individual performance from Gloukh meant the decision. The Israeli ran unchallenged through the midfield against advanced Austrians and fired into the far corner for his fifth goal of the season. The 17-year-old Frenchman Joane Gadou made his debut in defense for the home team.