Statement win to finish Youth League with!

Strong 60 minutes against PSG gives us edge

  Our team had a fine finale to the league phase of the UEFA Youth League. Phillip Verhounig, who netted his fourth brace of the current campaign, led our Young Bulls to their fifth win in six against PSG - therefore securing our spot in the top 6, and with that a home match in the last 32 in February.

Match summary

There was no waiting around before the action unfolded. Kenneth Tejiri was only just denied at one end before Jakob Pokorny - on his first start - had to block the nifty Mbaye at the other end. The sides kept up the end-to-end fare for the rest of the opening stages, as PSG goalkeeper James prevented us taking the lead following a fine move in the opposing area, before Julian Hussauf cleared just in front of the goal line minutes later.

We upped the pressure after the first quarter of an hour, with Tejiri sending a promising effort into the side netting before the long overdue goal came as Lukic pounced on the ball in the final third and threaded it forward for Phillip Verhounig, who made no mistake from a tight angle by slamming the ball past James and into the net (22'). The tempo trailed away a tad before the break, with half chances here and there as Pokorny put in another brilliant defensive moment by getting in the way of a promising Camara shot. That was that at the break.

The 425 spectators at the Red Bull Football Academy saw Beichler's boys emerge with even more energy after the restart. After just 40 seconds of play, Lukic was celebrating after he converted a sharp Aguilar pass with a fierce drive from 13 metres out (46'). It then got even better: Valentin Sulzbacher won the ball on the edge of the opposing area and slotted through for Verhounig to slam the ball into the roof of the net (52'). Our sharpshooter could have completed a hat-trick but fired the ball just wide of the post after an hour of play.

The fact that the visitors were threatened with a Youth League exit on goal difference sparked them into life. After our goalkeeper Christian Zawieschitzky was called upon once or twice, PSG grabbed a pair of consolations, with Sangare converting from a ball into the box (85') before Ndjantou got behind Zawieschitzky to strike (90+3').

There was no taking any points away from our boys, however! The three more points increases our tally to 16 and sees us qualify in impressive fashion for the last 32, which our boys will contest at home due to our presence in the top six.

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Line-up

Zawieschitzky – Hussauf, Pokorny (65' Paumgartner), Brandtner, Trummer – Sulzbacher, Lukic (77' Rackl), Bendra (65' Ivanschitz), Aguilar (84' Brandt) – Tejiri (77' Murillo), Verhounig

Yellow cards

Brandtner (36' foul), Trummer (80' foul), Rackl (90+1' foul)

Attendance

425

Referee

Milos Gigovic (BIH)