Red Bull Salzburg vs Real Madrid 08/08/19

8 August 2019

Red Bull Salzburg will welcome Real Madrid to the Red Bull Arena for a friendly meeting, with the visitors looking to build on a 5-3 win over Fenerbahce last time out.

The hosts have been busy this summer, playing out a total of seven friendlies so far (W4, D1, L2), with all of those triumphs seeing Salzburg score three or more goals. The Austrian Bundesliga is well underway, with the reigning holders securing two wins in as many league outings, beating their rivals by a multiple-goal margin on both occasions. What’s more, they have secured another impressive victory this summer, hammering the Austrian lower-league side Parndorf 7-1 in the Cup clash. Unstoppable when at home, Jesse Marsch’s men have netted 2+ match goals in all nine of their previous games at this venue, restricting their rivals to a maximum of one goal per match eight times in the process.

Meanwhile, it has so far been a summer to forget for the visitors, who have endured a fairly disappointing International Champions Cup campaign. Apart from a tight penalty shootout triumph over Arsenal, Los Blancos have suffered two humiliating defeats to city rivals Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich, in which they’ve conceded ten goals and scored four. Also, Zinedine Zidane’s players have struggled to live up to expectations in the Audi Cup semi-finals, losing 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur, which was the fourth time in Real’s last ten games that they’ve failed to find the net. Although La Liga heavyweights secured a 5-3 win over Fenerbahce last time out, their defensive problems have continued, with Real now struggled to keep a clean sheet in nine consecutive games. What’s more, they have conceded at least one goal in the first half on eight occasions across the same period, allowing over 1.5 match goals seven times in the process.