Manfred Schmid |

20.07.2022

"Time to score in Salzburg".

Austria kick off the new Bundesliga season with the opening match in Salzburg (Friday, 20:30, live on Sky and ORF 1), with nine new additions and a good atmosphere: "The preparation was very good, we have integrated the new players, the atmosphere within the team is very good, as it was all last year," said coach Manfred Schmid.

GEPA

At the end of the season, Austria had eleven departures with Patrick Pentz, Christian Schoissengeyr, Markus Suttner, Vesel Demaku, Alex Grünwald, Eric Martel (on loan), Max Sax, Levan Jordania, Bright Edomwonyi, Sterling Yateke and Noah Ohio (on loan).

So far, nine new signings have been made with Christian Früchtl, Matan Baltaxa, Billy Koumetio, Reinhold Ranftl (both on loan), James Holland, Andreas Gruber, Haris Tabakovic, Manuel Polster and Marko Raguž.

"The team is growing together more and more, I am absolutely happy with the newcomers. Those who still have injury problems will be brought up to speed as well as possible together with our medical department," Manfred Schmid explained.

The Violets start the new season with minus three points, the first game is against reigning champions FC Red Bull Salzburg: "We see the game as a great challenge. It is a good opportunity for the team to present itself. I think that after the game on Friday we know exactly what we are still missing and what we still have to work on. We came close to scoring against Salzburg three times in pre-season. Now it's time for us to take something home from Salzburg. We have to be one hundred percent concentrated for 90 minutes and take our chances," said the Austria coach.

Personnel news

Haris Tabakovic and Dominik Fitz, who were both unable to play in the Cup, have been back in team training since the beginning of the week. Ziad El Sheiwi, Matan Baltaxa and Marko Raguž are missing due to injury. Marco Djuricin is still in training. Georg Teigl and Aleksandar Jukic are ill and therefore questionable for Friday.