Red Bull Salzburg may have lost their Wednesday night Champions League clash against Liverpool, but a second-half rally from the Austrian side gave the hosts plenty to worry about before Mohamed Salah scored the Reds' fourth in a 4-3 result.
It was an incredible performance from the visitors, who brought the scoreline back to 3-3 mid-way through the second period courtesy of Takumi Minimao and Erling Braut Haaland adding to Hwang Hee-Chan's first-half goal.
Salah may have ultimately settled the contest for the reigning European champions but Salzburg's fightback showed that they can be a match for any team when in the right mindset.
Indeed, footage of coach Jesse Marsch's emotional half-time speech has now emerged and goes a long way to explaining the manner in which his players coped with one of the biggest fixtures of their professional careers.
Be warned: Marsch's language is very much NSFW.
Great insight into the half-time talk from Jesse Marsch in their game vs Liverpool.
— Darian Wilken (@CoachDarian) October 3, 2019
Interesting to note the emphasis placed group cohesion and re-aligning mentality before addressing any tactical components. pic.twitter.com/unNplaA25U
“How many fouls have we got? How many? Maybe two?” the 45-year-old began. “This is not a f*cking friendly! This is a f*cking Champions League match! We need to step up. There is too much respect for the opponent. Too much respect for the opponent!
“That goes for when we have the ball, when we don't have the ball and for fouls. Too much respect!
“Are they good? Yes, they are good. But we're playing too nicely, only with a little pressure here and there... There is no real tackle or a fight. They have to feel us, guys. They have to know we're f*cking here to compete.
“Not just that we're stylistically gonna try to play the same way. But we came to f*cking play, right? That is what's most important. We're gonna talk a little bit about tactics...
“We saw they're good. But we can play better and we can live a little bit more in this match. Confidence, strength... commit a foul. They are not that dangerous with corners and free-kicks. Come on, guys! We can do more. That is the big message now. We can do more.”
Liverpool travel to the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg on December 10.
