Barcelona did not have all the stars on board, above all the vacationing superstar Lionel Messi was missing, but the guests brought a lot of quality to the place. Salzburg still dominated the Spanish club at times and crushed it with uncompromising pressing – not only the spectators liked that.
“Especially with the fans, you saw again that the guys put all their horsepower on the road. I was extremely impressed by how they played against a top team, ”said coach Matthias Jaissle, whose team stepped on the accelerator from minute one to minute 90 in the sold-out stadium in Wals-Siezenheim, which was sold out with 29,520 spectators.
Greedy on and off the field
The style gives the 33-year-old, who went full throttle on the sidelines for 90 minutes and pushed the boundaries of the coaching zone into new dimensions, confidence. “When you notice that what you do with passion is crowned with success, you march on, believe in it, want to develop further and are excited for victories. You can see that in the players at the moment. “
With a team that had been replaced, Salzburg pushed half the pace and were rewarded with two goals just before half-time and the final whistle. Brenden Aaronson scored the much-acclaimed final score (90th), Luka Sucic took the overdue lead (43rd). “We are extremely happy about the win, we countered well and also found opportunities. It should be 3-0 or 4-0 in the first half and then it’s game over. We made it exciting again, but in the end we deservedly won. “
Sucic, analyzing dryly, was probably more emotional than usual when he scored. “Barcelona is my favorite club, when you score against them, it’s all the more beautiful,” said the 19-year-old Croat who played in the Champions League last season. but then an injury in the spring set it back a little. While Karim Adeyemi not only underpinned his positive development with the next submission, Noah Okafor acted unhappy and missed two huge opportunities – the most expensive purchase in club history at 11.2 million euros (2020) does not really want to arrive.
Jaissle wants to keep the ball flat
Naturally, the guests from Barcelona also had chances. “You can’t keep a top team like FC Barcelona under control for 90 minutes, so we had to expect them to show up here and there in front of our goal,” said Jaissle, praising his team at the same time. “You have to endure that you don’t conquer every ball. But we were always greedy at the right time and all in all it was a really good game of ours. “
Not the first time this season if you look at the previous three competitive games and the two test games, all of which have been won. “I want to keep the ball flat, things are going very well at the moment. But you also have to give the boys the time and allow them if things don’t go well, ”said Jaissle, who and his team will have to face the first major test in a competition in the Champions League play-off. But they seem to be prepared for the duels against Brondby Copenhagen.
Demir has hope
Barcelona still have a few days until the start of the season on August 15th, the defeat in Salzburg after the training camp in Donaueschingen is no break for the Catalan club. “We knew it was going to be difficult. It wasn’t really a friendly game, they stopped many situations with fouls ”, coach Ronald Koeman told Servus TV. Like his captain Sergio Busquets, the Dutchman had complained to the referee about the Salzburg approach.
But Barcelona presented themselves not only on the defensive with room for improvement. With ÖFB legionnaire Demir, a breath of fresh air came into the offensive game in the finish, which Koeman did not miss. The Vienna loan from Rapid, actually planned for Barcelona B, should have used his chance in preparation. Appearances in competitive games in the fighting team seem quite realistic. “If he continues like this, then maybe yes,” said Koeman. “He’s a good young player. He will have opportunities to play. “
