The preparation for the Champions League second leg at Bayern Munich was more than mixed for RB Salzburg. After the 1:1 in the first leg, head coach Matthias Jaissle therefore mainly practised understatement. However, he did make one small challenge.
At RB Salzburg’s press conference ahead of the Champions League second leg at Bayern Munich, it quickly became clear that head coach Matthias Jaissle did not want to put any additional pressure on his team. Salzburg were clear underdogs in the Bavarian capital, and despite the 1-1 draw in the first leg, “the starting position hasn’t changed at all”.
“The pressure is on Bayern. (…) For them, advancing is a must. They want to win the Champions League. For us, it’s an absolute addition,” said the 33-year-old, assigning the role of favourite to Julian Nagelsmann’s team.
Balance speaks for Bayern
A look at the statistics proves Jaissle right: Bayern have always won knockout matches against teams from the Austrian Bundesliga, and the German record champions have won all five home games against teams from the Alpine republic with a goal difference of 15:3.
In addition, Manuel Neuer, the “best goalkeeper in the world” according to Jaissle, returns to the Bayern goalkeeper’s box. The German also sees this as an additional motivation for Salzburg’s offensive department: “It’s a great challenge for such a young team to have the chance to score against such a keeper.
Salzburg goalkeeper Philipp Köhn, meanwhile, did not want to ascribe too much importance to Neuer’s comeback. “Of course you look up to him and I pick out sacks that I see in him. But that’s not the main focus tomorrow. We want to progress here,” said the 23-year-old.
Noah Okafor, who is out for the match in Munich due to a muscle injury in his right thigh, will not be able to help in this endeavour. Sekou Koita (knee), Bryan Okoh (knee) and Jerome Onguene (sick) are also unavailable. Benjamin Sesko and Oumar Solet, on the other hand, could be used, but Jaissle wants to wait for the final training session for both of them.
In any case, Salzburg has experienced turbulent times in the past days and weeks. A total of 17 players were infected with the corona virus at the end of February, and the Bundesliga match against LASK even had to be postponed. In the post-match, the Austrian serial champions showed one of their weakest performances of the season and could not get beyond a 0:0 despite 40 minutes of overtime. On Saturday, however, Salzburg returned to winning ways with a 4-0 victory over bottom side Altach.
“That was anything but an optimal preparation,” Jaissle stated despite the recent victory. Some of his players were not yet at 100 per cent after the Corona infection. However, the youngest coach of the current Champions League season does not want this circumstance to be understood as an excuse.
Salzburg waiting for first away win
Köhn also struck a similar note: “We will try to put our performance on the pitch like in the first leg and stick to the plan we are given. What comes out in the end, we will see tomorrow. We are 100 per cent focused.”
Even Jaissle, who could only register with Salzburg in the group stage away from home in the 1-1 draw in Sevilla, sent a little message of fight towards Nagelsmann’s eleven ahead of the fourth guest game of this year’s Champions League season despite the low stakes: “The belief is still big. I think the first leg showed that we can annoy Bayern. “
