Peter Stöger had been forced to put his phone on silent mode. It had been ringing and buzzing more or less constantly after Borussia Dortmund were pitted against Red Bull Salzburg in the seventh and penultimate tie of the UEFA Europa League last 16 draw.

There had been 24 calls in the space of two minutes and numerous text messages flashing up. An indication of how special this draw is for Borussia Dortmund's Austrian head coach. "Not just for me, but for my colleague Manni Schmid as well," he said.

Stöger sees it as "a really cool story and something special to play a competitive match in Austria for the first time in so many years". The Black & Yellows will travel to the fourth-largest city in the Alpine Republic for the second leg on 15 March (kick-off 21:05 CET), with the first leg scheduled to take place a week earlier, on 8 March (19:00 CET), at Signal Iduna Park.

"I would say the tie is attractive from a sporting perspective, and achievable," said Stöger, who at the same time underlined his – justified! – respect for the opposition. "They're a young and very active team, who clearly won their group and beat Marseille and others to top spot. If the draw had pitted us against Olympique Marseille instead, perhaps the public would assess the difficulty of the task ahead differently..."

"If it wasn't Austria, people would be saying it's a tough draw"

Red Bull Salzburg reached the knockout stages without losing a match (three wins, three draws) before recording a 4-3 (2-1 win at home, 2-2 draw away) aggregate victory over Real Sociedad. In reference to both the current season and recent campaigns in the competition too, Stöger said: "They have recorded some extraordinary results in the UEFA Europa League on multiple occasions." He then recalled one such win from February 2014, when Salzburg knocked out Ajax. Asked about the team's strengths, he said: "Quick closing down, offensive and aggressive defending – they try to play football in the way they are taught to in Salzburg." With a wink and a smile, the Vienna native added: "If it wasn't Austria, people would be saying it's a tough draw..."

It could be a small advantage for Borussia Dortmund that both the coach and co-coach are familiar with the football in their homeland and the strengths of a team that has dominated the Austrian Bundesliga in recent years, winning the championship the last four seasons in a row and only failing to finish top on three occasions since 2007. And Salzburg's head coach Marco Rose led the club's U19s to triumph in the UEFA Youth League only last year.
Boris Rupert

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