Christian Ilzer and Thomas Silberberger probably have other things in common, but definitely this fact:
They are the only two coaches who have so far managed to defeat FC Red Bull Salzburg in a championship group.
Ilzer celebrated once each with the WAC and Sturm, Silberberger caused a sensation with the WSG Tirol in spring 2021.
We are now in the sixth edition of the master group, and the number of “bull” bankruptcies in this group can still be easily counted on one hand.
51 games – 39 wins, 9 draws and 3 defeats. This is the impressive Mozartstadt result in the decisive phase of the championship.
The first moment of truth
When things get really serious, Salzburg is always there, as the saying goes. That was also the case in the previous season, when Ilzer and Sturm gave the series champions a comparatively exciting title duel, which RBS ultimately won with two wins in the direct championship group duels.
Sturm has been talking for months about the fact that these direct duels have to be made more positive this time if they actually want to dethrone the “Bulls”.
The first moment of truth came with the league summit on Sunday (from 5 p.m. in the LIVE ticker).
But Sturm will also have to deliver close to perfection in the other championship group matches. Because Salzburg usually does this too, as a look at the past five seasons proves:
Saison 2022/23:
Round opponent win draw defeat 23 Klagenfurt (a) 3:0 24 Austria (h) 3:3 25 LASK (h) 0:0 26 Sturm (a) 2:0 27 Rapid (a) 1:1 28 Rapid (h) 2:1 29 LASK (a) 1:0 30 Sturm (h) 2:1 31 Klagenfurt (h) 3:2 32 Austria (a) 1:1
Balance: 6 wins – 4 draws – 0 defeats
Spoiler: It was the first and only championship group since its introduction in which the “Bulls” did not celebrate exactly eight victories.
Perhaps it was also due to the unusually high number of draws for Salzburg that the public impression emerged that Matthias Jaissle’s team could be caught.
However, it is also a fact that the series champions only allowed themselves one defeat in the entire Bundesliga season, and that was in round 2, when they had to admit defeat to an in-form Rasmus Hojlund and lost 1-2 to Sturm.
For their part, the Graz team played a season that made Salzburg sweat at least a little. But you already know – the direct duels… Salzburg won the decisive summit 2-1 in round 30 after being 0-1 behind.
Saison 2021/22:
Round opponent win draw defeat 23 Sturm (h) 1:0 24 WAC (a) 4:1 25 Rapid (h) 2:1 26 Klagenfurt (a) 6:0 27 Austria (a) 2:1 28 Austria (h) 5:0 29 Storm (a) 1:2 30 WAC (h) 4:0 31 Rapid (a) 1:0 32 Klagenfurt (h) 1:1
Balance: 8 wins – 1 draw – 1 defeat
It was April 27, 2022 when Salzburg last lost a game in the championship group. “Of all things” against Sturm, you might think.
This fact probably needs to be put into perspective a little. Because it was a Wednesday game, three days after the “Bulls” secured their ninth championship title in a row with a 5-0 win against Austria Vienna.
Both teams were in a party mood, as Sturm was able to bag the runner-up title with this home win three laps before the end.
The last starting eleven that was able to defeat Salzburg in the upper playoff: Siebenhandl; Jäger, Affengruber, Borkovic, Dante; Hierländer, Ljubic, Niangbo, Kuen; Sarkaria, Jantscher.
Jäger (14th) and Jantscher (72nd) scored for Sturm, and Sesko (22nd) equalized in between.
They played for Sturm Graz and Red Bull Salzburg
Saison 2020/21:
Round opponent win draw defeat 23 Sturm (h) 3:1 24 Rapid (a) 3:0 25 LASK (h) 2:0 26 WSG Tirol (a) 2:3 27 WAC (a) 2:1 28 WAC (h) 1:1 29 Sturm (a) 3:1 30 Rapid (h) 2:0 31 LASK (a) 5:2 32 WSG Tirol (h) 4:0
Balance: 8 wins – 1 draw – 1 defeat
In the end, Salzburg was 15 points ahead of its first “chasers” Rapid and Sturm. Accordingly, the only defeat can be described as a classic slip-up.
Because of course it was a sensation that the underdog WSG Tirol stole three points from the “Bulls”.
Nikolai Baden Frederiksen equalized with his second goal of the game in the 76th minute, and Renny Smith scored the 3-2 winning goal for Thomas Silberberger’s team in the 89th minute.
Saison 2019/20:
Round opponent win draw defeat 23 Rapid (h) 2:0 24 Hartberg (a) 6:0 25 Sturm (a) 5:1 26 LASK (h) 3:1 27 WAC (a) 0:0 28 WAC (h) 2:2 29 Rapid (a) 7:2 30 Hartberg (h) 3:0 31 Sturm (h) 5:2 32 LASK (a) 3:0
Balance sheet: 8 wins – 2 draws – 0 defeats
This was the “Corona” champion group as the title decider was whipped through in many English rounds from June 3rd to July 5th.
“Title decision” sounds like an inappropriate choice of words given the twelve points lead over runner-up Rapid in the end. However, one should not forget that RBS only finished the regular season in second place, six points behind LASK.
Then came the lockdown and banned Linz team training, which was punished with a deduction of four points. After the restart, LASK managed little to nothing and ended up only fourth.
Salzburg clearly showed the competition its limits. Only Ferdinand Feldhofer won two draws with the WAC.
Saison 2018/19:
Round opponent win draw defeat 23 Austria (h) 5:1 24 LASK (a) 2:0 25 Sturm (h) 3:1 26 St. Pölten (a) 1:1 27 WAC (h) 3:1 28 WAC ( a) 1:2 29 Austria (a) 2:1 30 LASK (h) 2:1 31 Sturm (a) 2:1 32 St. Pölten 7:0
Balance: 8 wins – 1 draw – 1 defeat
In the first year with the new mode including points division, not even the artificial tension helped after Salzburg finished the regular round nine points ahead of their pursuers LASK and 24 points ahead of third-place Sturm Graz.
Even in the master group, only one person actually disrupted the Mozartstadt Triumph March, namely a certain Christian Ilzer with his WAC.
Kevin Friesenbichler (35th) and Marcel Ritzmaier (72nd) scored the two goals in the 2-1 home win, Fredrik Gulbrandsen (66th) equalized in the meantime.
This success represented an important step towards Lavanttaler’s third place in the final standings – 21 points behind Salzburg, which became champions with a twelve point lead over LASK.
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2024-03-28 22:00:16
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