Sturm Graz - Red Bull Salzburg

SK Sturm Graz (my favourite club) will play their season opener against double champion and probably best team in the league Red Bull Salzburg. For Sturm it is after the 2:0 cup win against Stadlau (3rdleague) the second match, while Salburg won already 3 games with the 2 Champions league qualification games against FK Liepaja. Last year was very disappointing for Sturm Graz, they didn’t reach their season goal with the Europa League qualification ticket and due to the poor style of play more and more spectators didn’t go to the stadium, the atmosphere round about the coach Franco Foda is still very negative. The club made a big change in the player sector, with captain and n#1 goalkeeper Michael Esser left one of a few players the club, which made good performances over the last season to German Bundesliga club Darmstadt 98. Also the loans with 2 starter (Donis Avdijaj and Anastasios Avlonitis) ended and no solution could be find to keep this players longer in Graz. 3 other starters with Klem, Schick & Kamavuaka left the club. With Uros Matic (the brother of the Chelsea Matic) and Christian Schulz from German relegation team Hannover came two interesting players, most of the other new players might be average in our league. Especially in the second half of the season Sturm had problems to score goals with Deni Alar came a striker who is very injury-prone, maybe he can reach his best Rapid level again then he could help the team, but I’m not sure about that. With Naby Keita Salzburg lost just 1 starter and they made with Munas Dabbur and Marc Rzatkowski two good transfers. Hinteregger couldn’t convince Gladbach to pay the high price and so he is back in Salzburg and he seems motivate again. (big contrast to first half of last season) I can’t understand the odds here, Salzburg shouldn’t have above 1.85-1.9 here. They clearly have the better team and the players better know each other, as I wrote above 6 starters left Sturm and new transfers Christian Schulz and new goal keeper Daniel Lück aren’t available tomorrow.  Published Jul-22-2016, 16:50 CET

Betting option: 1X2 / Moneyline Pick: SalzburgOdds: 2.2   Stake: 6 Bookmaker: bet365 Date: Jul-23-2016 Category: Austrian football