Bundesliga: Salzburg was again the measure of all things

The hoped-for 26 victories of the season, which so far only Wiener Austria achieved in the 1985/86 season – albeit in 36 rounds – were missed on Saturday in the 1-1 draw against Austria Klagenfurt. The series champion almost said goodbye to the season with a defeat. Sekou Koita, who came on as a “joker” after a long injury break, was just able to prevent this with his goal in the 93rd minute.

Thus, Salzburg stopped at 25 wins, which they had already achieved in the 32-game league in 2018/19 and 2020/21. The lead over second-placed Sturm Graz, who became runners-up for the first time since 2017/18, is 15 points, although it would have been 24 if there were no points shared. A year ago, the pursuers Rapid and Sturm, who were tied on points, were also 15 points (or 18 and 21 without sharing points) behind.

Wiener Austria, which was only represented in the qualifying group two seasons ago, also surprisingly made it onto the podium in third place – they last did so in 2016/17, when they came in second. The gap to the champion is considerable at 23 (or 34) points. Rapid, recently second twice, had to settle for fifth place behind WAC.

14 wins across seasons

The Salzburgers have already achieved a new club record. They achieved 14 consecutive wins across the seasons, four of which came in 2020/21. Twelve wins in a row so far, but only in one season (from round 17 to 28 in 2013/14) have been the best. The “Bulls” also managed to win in the first ten rounds of the 2018/19 season.

However, they were a long way from their Bundesliga record of 33 games without defeat (21-12-0) between the 3-1 loss in Ried on November 24, 2012 and the 3-1 loss at Admira on November 10, 2013. The all-time Oberhaus record in Austria is still held by the Wiener Sportclub with 41 rounds without defeat (33-8-0) across seasons from 1957/58 to 1959/60. At that time only 26 rounds were played per season.

The numbers for the 2021/22 season

After 32 rounds, the top scorer was again able to sit on a man from Salzburg. Karim Adeyemi succeeded Patson Daka from Zambia, who emigrated to England a year ago. With 27 goals, Daka scored eight more than the German (19), who is now moving to Borussia Dortmund. Like a year ago, a “Tiroler” and a loan from Juventus Turin made it into second place. At that time the Dane Nikolai Baden-Frederiksen with 18, this time the Italian Giacomo Vrioni with 17. Then follows with Jakob Jantscher (Sturm/14) the first Austrian.

There were coach changes at Rapid, LASK, Ried, Altach and Hartberg. Ferdinand Feldhofer replaced the Hütteldorfer from November 29th. Didi Kühbauer, who already on 10.11. fired after the 1:4 in Wolfsberg and replaced for two games by Thomas Hickersberger/Steffen Hofmann. At LASK, assistant coach Andreas Wieland initially came on an interim basis for Dominik Thalhammer (mid-September), was then fixed from 2022 before he had to make way for Kühbauer on May 3rd. In Ried, Andreas Heraf, who was initially ill, came on November 8th. the out, co-trainer Christian Heinle took over, but only until the end of the year, then Robert Ibertsberger was the boss until April 18, before Heinle again from April 19. set the tone.

In Altach, the Swiss Ludovic Magnin replaced Damir Canadi, who was released in mid-December, from the beginning of the year. Finally, in Hartberg, Klaus Schmidt (from 8 March) was signed for Kurt Russ (until 7 March) and, like the others, managed to stay up in the league.

Other values:

Goals in the first 15 minutes – scored: Salzburg, Ried (je 9), Klagenfurt, LASK (je 8), Austria, Rapid, Admira (je 7), WSG Tirol (6), Hartberg (5), Sturm, WAC, Altach (je 3)

Goals in the first 15 minutes – received: Austria, Hartberg, Klagenfurt (je 9), WAC, Altach (je 8), Ried (7), Salzburg, Admira, WSG Tirol (je 6), Sturm (5), Rapid, LASK (je 3)

Goals from 76th minute – scored: Salzburg (31), WSG Tirol (14), Rapid, Sturm, Hartberg (13 each), Austria, LASK (11 each), Altach (9), Ried (8), Admira, Klagenfurt (7 each), WAC (5 )

Goals from 76th minute – received: WSG Tirol (18), Klagenfurt (16), Rapid, Ried (15 each), Sturm, Admira (13 each), LASK (12), Hartberg, WAC (10 each), Altach (8), Austria (6), Salzburg (5)

Penalty: Of 58 penalties imposed, 48 were converted, two of them with a margin. Admira (8/8) was number one in converting 911s.

Red cards (26): Klagenfurt Austria set a record with eleven exclusions, ten of which were red. Also: Altach (4), Ried (3), Rapid, WAC, WSG Tirol (2 each), Sturm, LASK, Admira (1 each). Salzburg, Austria and Hartberg got away without it.

Yellow cards: 677 pieces were imposed, with the WSG Tirol conceding the most with 77 (for 22 players).

Table lead: Red Bull Salzburg led without a break from the first to the 32nd lap. After 22 laps, the lead over Sturm and the WAC was 18 points each (halved nine), after 32 laps 15 over Graz.

Red Lantern: Nine teams were carriers of the red lantern at least once. Rapid (1st round), Klagenfurt (2nd), WAC (3rd/4th), Austria (5th/6th), WSG Tirol (7th-11th, plus 14th), LASK (12th/ 13.) Altach (15th-31st with an interruption 26th/27th through Hartberg) and after the 32nd lap Admira.

Referee: A total of 17 referees were used for the 192 games, with Vienna’s Harald Lechner being number one with 16 appearances. Walter Altmann from Tyrol and Sebastian Gishamer from Salzburg each had 14, Manuel Schüttengruber, Stefan Ebner (both Upper Austria) and Alan Kijas (Lower Austria) 13 each.

iron: Seven players were in action in all 32 games of their clubs, not surprising that four of them are goalkeepers who always played through: Patrick Pentz (Austria Wien), Andreas Schlager (LASK), Jörg Siebenhandl (Sturm) and Andreas Leitner (Admira) . In addition, there are midfielders Nicolas Seiwald (Salzburg/five times as a substitute and seven times a substitute) and Tobias Kainz (Hartberg/11 a, 1 e) as well as defender Amar Dedic (WAC/4 a). Rapid fielded the most players with 39, while Sturm and the WAC managed with the least with 24 men each.