Salzburg vs Ajax 22/08/20

22 August 2020

Salzburg and Ajax continue their preparations for the new season, as the two sides lock horns at the Red Bull Arena in an exciting friendly match-up this weekend.

Austrian champions for the seventh year running, Salzburg finished the last season with four triumphs, all of which produced a full-time margin of at least three goals. Despite being held to a 2-2 draw to the Slovenian outfit Bravo in their first off-season fixture, ‘Die Mozartstädter’ take the field after putting together two consecutive wins, both of which saw them score over 1.5 goals and win the second half ‘to nil.’ In fact, free-scoring Salzburg have now netted two goals or more in eight successive outings, managing an intimidating average of 3.5 goals across that period. In turn, Jesse Marsch’s men have scored three goals apiece in their last two H2H meetings with Ajax.

As for Ajax, they boast a whopping +11 goal difference in the warm-up campaign (GF:13, GA:2), having won each of their three off-season matches by at least a two-goal margin. Impressively, reigning Eredivisie champions have scored five goals in one half in two of those three friendly clashes. Interestingly, none of their 17 games this calendar year has ended in a draw (W12, L5), with 12 yielding a full-time margin of over 1.5 goals! The ‘clean-sheet’ theme has also played a significant role in the context of Ajax’s results in 2020, as ten of those 17 outcomes (wins/losses) saw the winner on the day shut out the loser.