What a week for international football (soccer for you Americans :P) in Europe.
Tuesday: After a 1:4 in Barcelona, AS Roma does the impossible and kicks on of the favorites out of the tournament with a 3:0 home-victory.
Wednesday: Juventus Turin, loosing the first game 0:3 against two-times-in-a-row champion Real Madrid, also comes back and it's 3-0 in the last minute - everything seemed like there would be extension time necessary. But then there is a controversial penalty, keeper-legend Buffon gets sent of and Cristiano Ronaldo heads it home for RM once again
Thursday: Salzburg, Austria. After a few silly defensive mistakes, Salzburg needs to come back from a 2:4 loss against Lazio Rome. Time for a HEIMSPIEL (home game) in the Bullenarea (bulls arena).
I was there. But far more important:
Reinhold @modernpastor Yabo, striker for Salzburg, was there and in the starting squad!
Only one week after Ray had missed the first game due to beeing sick, that was an awesome accomplishment. If you want to know what he thought about the 2-4 in the first game, click on the image to get to his article!
And if you want to know how important yesterday's game was to him even before the game took place, read this one:
But now back to the Bullenarena in Salzburg!
Everything was set up for a perfect soccer night. For the second time in a row (after the game against Dortmund), Salzburg's stadium was sold out - and the atmosphere was great.
But let's start with the warming up where I have recorded a nice wembley-reminder-shot from @modernpastor - What do you guys think - was the ball completely behind the line? ;)
Now let's take a loot at two pictures from when the teams where entering the pitch. First there was a really nice coreo where the fans held high the Austrian Flag:
There was one more huge flag - But that didn't work out quite as expected 😅
The first half
I would lie if I would say that the first half was great. It started all well - but Salzburg missed the big chance for the early goal in minute 4 - After that, nothing too exciting happend before the break - so let's just skip there ;)
The throwback
The first ten minutes in the second half were not too great as well - but then the action started!
Minute 55: Ciro Immobile, Rome's top goal getter suddenly is alone in the front of Salzburgs goalkeeper - at least to me it looked offside-suspicious though. But what the striker did with the ball was perfect - a great shot in the top right corner for the 0:1. At this point, it seemed as if Rome would go on to the half finals for sure.
But that was not for long!
The quick return
Minute 56: Ray @modernpastor Yabo hands the ball over to Munas Dabbur about 25 meters away from the goal. The goalgetter takes a few steps and shoots - The ball gets deflected and goes into the net - the important goal for the 1:1 within 80 seconds of the 0:1! A quick reaction was exactly what was needed.
But Salzburg still needed at least two goals!
Salzburg-Time!!!
But then it was Salzburg-time - Withing five minutes!!! they turned the 1:1 into a 4:1 lead. My friend summed it up well: "Once they get rolling, it's almost impossible to stop them!"
But how did this happen that quick?
Minute 72: Amadou Haidara takes a heart from 28 meters away from the goal, kicks the ball and it goes exactly into the long corner. Probably saveable from the keeper - But I can guarantee you - nobody cared, in is in ;)
Minute 74: A "weird" long ball out of Salzburgs half into the penalty box from Rome. Hwang Hee-chan thinks the fastest, gets his touch on the ball and scores the important 3:1. I think the ball was deflected as well. But again, nobody cared about anything else than the result - 3:1 (my guess before the game) would have already been enough for Salzburg to advance.
Minute 76: A corner for Salzburg from the left side. The ball goes to the long corner where Austrian international Stefan Lainer heads the ball into the net - 4:1.
Within four minutes, Salzburg had completely turned around the situation and crushed Rome. In the final 15 minutes, Salzburg tried to play it safe - and it worked out.
History has been made!
For the first time in 22 years, an Austrian soccer club advances to the half-final-stage of an international club competition. Thank you FC Red Bull Salzburg, thank you Ray @modernpastor Yabo!
It might sound silly to german reads or reads from other soccer-succesfull nations - But as an Austrian, it's really awesome to have an "own" club still in the tournament at this time of the year. We are not used to that 😅
So please allow me to be a little enthusiastic here ;)
What does Ray @modernpastor Yabo think about the game?
Well, of course I hope he will write a few words directly under this post - for now we have to go with the official interview he gave after the game:
That's football, everything is possible! We never stopped believing into ourselves, even when we were behind. The audience was like an additional player today and put us on fire. We will enjoy the next 24 hours, afterwards we have to look forward. For the semifinals I would love to play against Arsenal.
I am glad that Salzburgs team got the audience it deserves and that we could even play a small part in helping them to conquer Rome! And I definitely agree with Ray's wish to play Arsenal - two offensive teams usually result in great games for everybody :)
Like Ray said - In Football, everything is possible - you can definitely see he has that mindset if you are following his blog here on Steemit! One can definitely learn something from there!
And mindset is definitely key in soccer on that level - In my eyes, that is what made the difference yesterday - It just seemed as if Salzburg always wanted to win. On the other hand, Rome slowed down after the 1:0 - it almost seemed as if they had already thought they were safe. A fatal error!
A video says more than a thousand words ;)
I know, words and pictures can not describe nearly as good as a video can. So there you go, there is a recap from yesterdays game:
Hopefully you enjoyed this little report - If I can make it to the game, one of the next round will follow for sure! Until then I suggest you follow @modernpastor himself if you are interested - I am quite sure that there will at least be one post about this topic the next days ;)
Thank you for reading,
Martin
EDIT:
Only a few minutes after I published this one, the @modernpastor published about the game himself - check it out:
German football for a while now has been the best in the worldWhen @modernpastor told me he plays for Salzburg I couldn't believe it, until I saw him play it's great to have a Steem ambassador playing football really it was gloriously poised victory for them, as they went home winners.
Thank you for covering the champions league sir, in all fairness I think juventus should've won
That's a very good summary, great!
thanks @theaustrianguy
Champions league and europa league Second leg matches seems tough this season
Roma strike back and juventus wanna do the same but last minutes penalty sent them off. As if the Italy teams plan to send off Spains
Du hast Dir wirklich Mühe gegeben. Schöner Aufbau vom Blog.. so gut wie die Aufstellung von Deinem Team ;)
Nice Blog. Respect.
The European games this season are so unexpected and exciting. Great summary on the most exciting games! Hope you will check my blog as well, I cover football as well! Thank you ~@soccernews
this is what i call a complete review. Congrats to @modernpastor. Marseille is a tough opponent so good luck.
Hallo @theaustrianguy,
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