10 reasons why Austrian Bulls deserve close attention
Victory Salzburg visiting over Benfica – one of the sensations of the first round of the group stage of the Champions League. The Austrian club beat the quarter-finalist of the last tournament in Lisbon. And he did it so confidently that Anatoly Trubin’s teamplaying in the minority, there was practically no chance of salvation.
After the first day of play, Salzburg topped the quartet’s standings. Of course, it will be incredibly difficult for the Bulls to advance to the playoffs from a group that includes Inter and Real Sociedad in addition to Benfica. But it’s already very interesting to watch this project. Let’s explain why.
Salzburg has the youngest squad among the participants in the group stage of the Champions League: average age of the team is 21.5 years. By comparison, Feyenoord, which is second in this indicator, has an average team age of 23.6 years. Shakhtar has 23.7 years. The youngest team in the UPL is Zarya, with an average age of 23.1 years.
The average age of Salzburg’s starting line-up against Benfica was 21 years and 183 days. This is the youngest squad in the history of the Champions League group stage.
Salzburg’s starting line-up for the match with Benfica included six players under 21 years of age. Two of them – Samson Bayd and Oscar Glukh – are 19 years old.
In the starting line-up for Salzburg there was only one football player over 25 years old – goalkeeper Alexander Schlager (27 years old). And only two are over 22 years old (besides Schlager, this is 24-year-old defender Alexa Terzic).
Of the five Salzburg players who came on as substitutes in the match with Benfica, two were under 22 years old, three were under 24 years old.
Of the nine matches at the start of this season Salzburg won eight (six in the championship, one each in the National Cup and Champions League), and one ended in a draw. The only one who has managed to take points from the Bulls so far is Sturm (2:2)
In nine matches this season Salzburg scored 26 goals (on average almost three goals per game). In none of the nine matches did the Bulls score fewer than two goals.
In Salzburg’s application – 20 football players under 22 years of age.
Seven Salzburg players under 23 are assessed $10 million or more.
In two and a half years, Salzburg made money from the sale of its players 150 million euros. 77.6 of them – this summer.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
