Salzburg: five questions about the Champions League opener

FC Salzburg start their second season in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday.

After years of fruitless search for the path to “queen class” through qualification, the “cops” bought a fixed ticket in the preseason thanks to the five-year ranking.

This year it also worked for the first time with qualification against Maccabi Tel Aviv, for the second time in a row Salzburg will be able to enjoy a Champions League autumn.

Before the “policemen” host Lokomotiv Moscow in Wals-Siezenheim to kick off the new season (Wednesday, from 18:55 on the LIVE ticker), launch LAOLA1 Five fundamental questions that could determine Salzburg’s success in this year’s Champions League campaign.

What did the “policemen” learn from its premiere?

Although Salzburg were able to at least challenge all of the group’s opponents in the preseason, the “cops” were ultimately lost to the extent that they were “only” allowed to advance to the 16th final of the Europa League. While Salzburg shot KRC Genk twice, the “Bulls” failed to win the two direct duels against Liverpool and SSC Napoli. Against Liverpool they scored two very even losses to SSC Napoli which Mozartstadt lost unnecessarily at home, only to score a point in the second leg at San Paolo shortly thereafter. For the young people of Salzburg, at least in part, their own naivety was their downfall. Rather than simply playing home to good results, the people of Mozart’s town got in the way of their own lust for the offense against world-class opponents multiple times.

At 3: 4 at Anfield Road, as Salzburg struggled to rebound from a 3-0 loss to Liverpool and managed to draw in the meantime, they conceded the losing goal just nine minutes later. Dominik Szoboszlai also threw the ball away from his youthful arrogance in his own 16 and allowed Mohamed Salah to score 3: 4 from the “Bulls” point of view. The “Bulls” also bounced back twice after falling behind in a 3-2 draw against Napoli at home. When Erling Haaland headed 2: 2 at Red Bull Arena in the 72nd minute, Salzburg went on a counterattack with the restart and conceded the 2: 3 just seconds after the tie.

Such carelessness, which also stems from the Mozartstadters’ intrepid and offensive style of play, is mercilessly punished by top teams. If the “cops” want to take something away from tactically extremely intelligent teams like Atlético de Madrid or Bayern, Jesse Marsch and company have to find a way to remedy such situations in the future. Salzburg have to downplay the first season of the Champions League that they give you nothing, absolutely nothing, in the “premier category” and that all mistakes are coldly exploited by world-class rivals.

Who can replace Haaland and Hwang?

The Salzburg thunderstorm, which caused such a sensation and even more goals last fall, is now history. Erling Haaland said goodbye to Borussia Dortmund in winter, Hee-chan Hwang moved to RB Leipzig in summer. In the final season of the Champions League, the Norwegian-Korean duo were jointly responsible for eleven “premier class” goals for the “bulls”. Takumi Minamino, who has been kicking Liverpool more or less regularly since the winter, also contributed two hits and three assists. In total, Mozartstadt’s team scored 16 goals in six games, making it the fourth most dangerous team in the entire group stage of the Champions League.

Meanwhile, Patson Daka and Sekou Koita have assumed the role of the number one forward pair in Salzburg and have already scored 16 goals in eight games this season. Karim Adeyemi and Mergim Berisha have to do something for now, the two Germans are considered forwards number three and four. Young Adamu, raised by Liefering, will also have his chances. Only with a dangerous attack does Salzburg have a chance of succeeding in the Champions League. Especially in Daka there are high expectations this season, which the Zambian has been able to fulfill so far. Now the 22-year-old has to show his nose for goals in the “premier class”. Last year, Daka failed to exceed a target in six missions.

Is it the right defense for this year’s Champions League?

Defense is and remains the main weak point of the Salzburg game. In preseason the “Bulls” conceded 13 goals in the six group games, only five of the 32 teams had a weaker defense. “That’s not good enough in this tournament,” coach Jesse Marsch said almost exactly a year ago when his team lost 3-2 to Napoli. Since then, a lot has happened in Salzburg, but unfortunately not much has changed in terms of defensive weakness. In the current season, the Mozartstadt team conceded a goal in every competitive match, with the sole exception of the two cup matches against Bregenz (10: 0) and St. Pölten (3: 0).

Marsch has been experimenting with a string of three since taking office last summer, but in the few games where it was also used, the expected success was not achieved. The last four are most likely to remain the “bullish” defensive orientation this year as well. The defense was reinforced with Oumar Solet, who went from Olympique de Lyon to Salzach for 4.5 million euros. The young Frenchman will not be a problem for the starting eleven, at least in the first games of the Champions League. Instead, at least in the match against Lokomotiv Moscow, Andreas Ulmer, Max Wöber, Andre Ramalho and Albert Vallci will probably make up the last four. The latter played Rasmus Kristensen as a right back this season. Much will depend on how Salzburg face Bayern or Atlético around forwards Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suárez. Only when the Mozartstadters bring a reasonably stable defense to the field and maybe even play at zero is there a word to say in promotion.

Can Szoboszlai finally shine on the international stage?

The player who will be the most focused on this year’s Champions League campaign is Dominik Szoboszlai. The 19-year-old Hungarian dived a bit in the shadow of Haaland and Co. last fall and didn’t get the attention ambitious talents sought. Also, the free throw specialist certainly didn’t deliver his peak performance. With spring, more precisely since Corona’s break, Szoboszlai really flourished and attracted, among other things, the interest of AC Milan.

The Salzburg sports officials convinced the noble coach to stay in Austria, Szoboszlai agreed with the prospect of the Champions League and finally being able to use his full potential there. Now the 19-year-old must also meet and meet his own extremely high standards. In the meantime, he is the absolute star of the team and the one from Salzburg that will undoubtedly receive the most international attention in the ‘premier class’. The Salzburg performance this fall will drop and it will be with Dominik Szoboszlai. If the Hungarian packs up one of his dream days, he can decide the matches without help, even against the best clubs.

What are the goals?

As they did last fall with Liverpool FC, the “cops” again face the reigning Champions League champion, known as Bayern Munich. Furthermore, Atlético de Madrid is one of the most uncomfortable teams in Europe to play. The third opponent, Lok Moscow, is after all Russia’s runner-up. On the Salzburg pitch, everyone agreed that this year’s task is even more difficult than last year. Realistically, Salzburg will have nothing to do with promotion to the round of 16 in this group and will instead pair up with Lok Moscow for the Europa League.

Miracles have been anything but a rarity in Salzburg in recent years, opponents with significantly higher ratings have been eliminated time and time again. “Nothing is impossible, we have already played many good matches at international level. We do not need to hide or be afraid,” says Andreas Ulmer, who in his almost twelve years in Salzburg has often seen how the impossible is possible have been made. There will be little to gain against Bayern, who took momentum brilliantly over the summer, even if the last direct match, a test match in winter preparation 2014, ended 3-0 for Salzburg. Direct duels with Atlético will mark the direction in which Salzburg’s ambitions can move. If Jesse Marsch and Co. manages to come up with a game plan against the cooked Madrilenians and break through the world-famous defense with dynamism and rapid changes, “Rojiblanco” could double down. Salzburg are the clear favorites against Lok Moscow.

Text as: © LAOLA1.at

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