Ajax were played off the park.
That Nayim-like goal from Soriano:ross:
Worrying for Dutch league football. Ajax still are the Eredivisie's best side but got smashed to pieces by a fit and pacey Red Bull side.
It was coming though. Ajax have been playing poorly in recent weeks.
I think thats not fair on Salzburg: I'm employed in Austrian football so watch all the games, Bundesliga and second division, and Salzburg are a quality outfit.
Extremely technical, and having searched for a coach to bring the right formula of attractive football and winning (not like Huub Stevens anti football) they appear to have found that in Roger Schmidt, who had Paderborn playing some nice stuff in Germany.
They have a superb blend in their team, with unsung workers like Chritoph Leitgeb building the platform for Kampl, Mane etc to play. In reserve they have internationals like Dusan Svento who would walk into every other team in Austria, and who was the subject of bids in winter.
There is a mini-renaissance going on in Austrian football at the moment; domestically only Austria Vienna and Sturm Graz are going backwards. Rapid Vienna have made an excellent internal appointment in Zoran Barisic, and now have the youngest team in the Bundesliga with up to 7-8 academy products on the field in some matches. With regards to Rapid look out for players like Marcel Sabitzer (had a spell in the AC Milan youth set up) and Louis Schaub (18, one of the brightest prospects in Austrian football).
Rapid drew twice with Genk in their group, and should have won both times and qualified (I was in Belgium for the Genk match), also drawing once with Dynamo Kiev, whikst in their group Salzburg dismantled standard Liege twice. Its not too far fetched to suggests the best teams in Austria are currently better than the top teams in Belgium.
Austria Vienna, despite being currently 5th in the Bundesliga, took 4 points off Zenit in the CL too.
I don't think anyone should be falling off their seats in the next couple of seasons if Austrian team (to a certain point, of course), start taking more and more scalps in Europe, and I'd say Salzburg are definitely a dark horse for a semi-final spot. I certainly think they would give us a game, for example. They already have the league in the bag and will be focussing all resources on the EL.