Red Bull Salzburg are set to make their way to Celtic Park on Thursday night looking to provide some heartache.
The Austrian champions are top of the group and can’t be displaced at this point. That’s because they’ve totally steamrolled the Europa League’s Group B with ease.
Now? They’ll be looking to make it six wins out of six and send their Red Bull buddies through. Leipzig will play host to Rosenborg, and have to better Celtic’s result against Salzburg.
A defeat and it’s surely over for the Hoops. And unfortunately, it doesn’t make for good reading when looking over Salzburg’s stats.
Out of their 29 games this season, Salzburg have only failed to score in one of them. That match was a Champions League qualifier at Red Star Belgrade. In their other 28 matches, they’ve netted a worrying 76 goals.
For Celtic, Odsonne Edouard is the star-man in Europe with just two goals in five games. He’s Celtic’s main man for goals and has scored more than anyone else in the Europa League for the club this season.
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Compare that to Salzburg, who have three players who’ve all scored three goals or more. Fredrik Gulbrandson has three strikes, whilst Moanes Dabbour has five along with Takumi Minamino. Both Dabbour and Minamino netted in the last meeting between Salzburg and Celtic.
Away record just as good as the home one
With Salzburg’s two-year unbeaten run at home well documented, not many have spoken of their away record. Red Bull may have drawn 2-2 with bottom-of-the-table Admira Wacker at the weekend, but they’re unbeaten in all 16 trips from their home ground this season. 13 of those have ended in victory.
Red Bull have also bagged 13 goals in their last five away matches, as they continue to look formidable at any venue.
Of course, the most ominous stat has yet to be discussed. Out of their 29 games this season, Red Bull haven’t managed to lose a single one of them. Added to that, only five have ended in stalemates.
This isn’t a piece that’s supposed to get you down ahead of Thursday. It’s simply just noting the size of the task Celtic have ahead of them.
The Hoops proved they can match them for long spells away from home when they lost 3-1 in Austria. At a rocking Celtic Park, however, Celtic will fancy their chances even more.
Reading those stats, however, Salzburg simply has to be respected.