Salzburg's Marsch looks to Ajax as model for success in Europe next season

RB Salzburg head coach, Jesse Marsch, said on Thursday that Dutch club, Ajax, is a club that he wants his side to look to when it comes to performances in the UEFA Champions League next season, as the Austrian side were recently crowned champions for the second consecutive year after winning the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup this season.

"I used Ajax as an example of a club from a smaller nation that year, after year, after year, finds itself in the Champions League and competing to get out of the group phase," he said.

The coronavirus brought controversy to the Austrian league when then-leader LASK Linz was deducted points for holding illicit training sessions in violation of league rules.

Since the restart Salzburg is unbeaten in nine games and has a 14-point lead over LASK ahead of their game Sunday, the last of the season.

The American coach, has made his mark in Europe after winning the Austrian title, and now he hopes more U.S. coaches can follow his path.

"I hope, I really hope that with ... my success that there will be more opportunities for not just players in Europe but American coaches as well."

Marsch, a former assistant coach at RB Leipzig, remembered his side's stellar performance in their 4-3 defeat at Anfield against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League last October.

"Liverpool on a Champions League night in that stadium against that team and you get slapped in the face three times at the beginning of the match ... in the second half that we played more like we said we were going to ... and we were a little unlucky not to come away with a better result," said Marsch.

Like Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, Salzburg's game is built around high-intensity pressing.

The results are rarely dull - since June 7th, Salzburg has won games 6-0, 5-1, 7-2 and 5-2.

Image credits: AP