22nd matchday in the domestic Bundesliga: LASK meets Red Bull Salzburg. The game starts at 5 p.m., we will report live (ticker below).
Here is the live ticker: Serial champions and league leaders Salzburg, of all places, are supposed to help LASK in their search for success at the end of the basic round of the Bundesliga. In the spring, without winning a competitive game, the third-placed athletes want to “show a reaction” today, as coach Thomas Sageder and captain Robert Zulj emphasized in unison. Of course, Salzburg does not intend to give up its narrow lead over Sturm Graz before the points are divided. “We definitely want to end the regular season with three points,” Salzburg coach Gerhard Struber made clear. And striker Petar Ratkov also sees no reason to give way to the Graz team, who were challenged in Hartberg on Sunday. “Our goal is to start the championship group as league leaders,” assured the Serb, whose team is two points ahead of Sturm. The second phase of the season will be a close affair either way. In the best case scenario, you go into the race with a two-point lead after the points are divided, in the worst case scenario, you would find yourself level on points with the Blackys at the start. After the 1-0 victory over Klagenfurt, who were concrete in defense, last Sunday, Salzburg awaits in the only Saturday game The round was a completely different duel. The offensive creative spirit Oscar Gloukh is back after his break for personal reasons. “We know that it will not be an easy task at LASK. We won the cup there at the start of spring, but we saw how much we had to invest to win. “It will be no different on Saturday,” Struber made it clear. LASK “moved even closer together.” At the beginning of February, the Bulls won 3-2 in the Cup quarter-finals in Linz, and last October LASK surprised in the league in Wals-Siezenheim with a 1-0 win. Last but not least, it is achievements like these that ensure optimism on the part of Linz. “We have shown that we can challenge Salzburg,” said Sageder. “We were always there against big players in the league,” said Zulj. Conversely, he couldn’t hide the difficulties he had with teams that were formally weaker: “You also have to perform against supposedly smaller teams. This has been a problem for a long time, we are aware of that.” This came to light last weekend with the zero score in Altach; it was the third draw in the five competitive games of the new year after two defeats. Zulj, Linz’s offensive all-rounder, was missing due to suspension and is returning this time. “The game in Altach was one of the weakest since I became coach,” admitted Sageder. He has to put up with public criticism, but his relationship with the team is untroubled. “I didn’t feel like there was a problem between me and the team. On the contrary, we have moved even closer together after dealing with the Altach game.”
source site-12