Youth League quarter-final spot secured despite nervy end

FC Red Bull Salzburg

·4 Maret 2025

Youth League quarter-final spot secured despite nervy end

Dominant Young Bulls see off Atletico Madrid

Despite being down to ten men, Daniel Beichler's boys managed to dominate against the top Spanish side. After Edmund Baidoo and Valentin Sulzbacher struck, a great deal of perseverance was needed to secure a spot in the last eight of the U19 competition.

Match summary

Our Young Bulls made a frantic start and overwhelmed the young Atletico defence. Beichler's boys continually broke into the danger area out wide, with only precision lacking with their balls into the box. Kenneth Tejiri narrowly missed after Baidoo brought it into the box, before Trummer's ball ran through the area.

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After the referee remained surprisingly silent in two penalty appeals – Paumgartner being brought down and Tejiri hauled back before he could pounce at short range – and Baidoo plus Trummer went wide with efforts from distance, it remained an underwhelming goalless encounter at the break. The only very noteworthy event was an unwanted one that saw Lassina Traore sent off by Jakob Sundberg for collecting his second yellow card (35').

There was another controversial call that the 425 spectators at the Red Bull Football Academy disapproved of shortly after the restart. Valentin Zabransky put the ball into the net, only for the offside flag to cut our celebrations short. That kick-started a purple patch for our youngsters that ultimately paid off - Valentin Sulzbacher took the ball into the final third, and his ball through was met by Edmund Baidoo, who sent the ball past the keeper and into the empty net (56').

Shortly after that, the visitors were also reduced to ten men as Fernandez fouled Enrique Aguilar in the penalty area to get a second yellow card (60'). Sulzbacher then sent Esquivel the wrong way and it was 2-0 to our boys (61').

Atletico had an answer, however, as Hueso was given too much space outside the box and smashed the ball into the top corner (65'). Atleti were now starting to press - with a late corner defended and Zawieschitzky leaping to save – as we brought the lead over the line! Our boys clung on for a huge win and secured a spot in the quarter-finals on 1 or 2 April. We will play the winners of the encounter between SK Sturm Graz and Olympiakos tomorrow.

Views

We knew it would be a tight match, but the way the boys played today was incredible! They really deserved this win. Hats off to them for getting both the goals with a man down - there was such relief at the end. The refereeing decisions went against us in the end, but that didn't stop us from putting in a top performance and making the next round. The most important thing about the quarter-finals are that we are at home. We are pleased about that as we feel very happy here in the academy – we will see tomorrow who we are to face, and we can't influence that.

Daniel Beichler

Line-up

Zawieschitzky – Trummer, Zabransky, Mellberg (60' Schuster), Traore – Striednig, Sulzbacher, E. Baidoo (83' Lukic), Paumgartner, Aguilar – Tejiri (38' Brandtner)