Opponent: #179 Red Bull Salzburg 🇦🇹

What is it about Villa drawing unpopular teams? First, RB Leipzig 🇩🇪, then Maccabi Tel Aviv 🇮🇱 and now the bete noire of Austrian football, Red Bull Salzburg 🇦🇹.

But draw them we did, and so on Thursday, Villa will face Red Bull Salzburg 🇦🇹 for the first time in competitive football.

In doing so, Red Bull Salzburg will become the 179th team that the Villa first team has played in League or Cup football, and will be Villa’s 58th 🇪🇺 continental European opponents and their second from Austria 🇦🇹, having first met SK Rapid Wien 🇦🇹 in 2009.

Opponent Legacy Numbers: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/matches/opponent/legacy-numbers

It is also Villa’s fourth new opponent of the season after Feyenoord Rotterdam 🇳🇱 Go Ahead Eagles 🇳🇱, and Maccabi Tel Aviv 🇮🇱.

But that's nothing new for Villa:

Since Unai Emery 🇪🇸 arrived, Villa have faced 17 new opponents, that’s more than under the previous thirteen Villa managers combined and as many in four seasons as in the previous twenty-one.

Salzburg themselves were founded in 1933 as SV Austria Salzburg after the merger of the City's leading clubs Hertha and Rapid, but they've had a penchant for sponsorship names from day dot, having been known variously as SV Casino Salzburg and SV Wüstenrot Salzburg before being acquired by Red Bull in 2005.

Salzburg have 17 Austrian Bundesliga titles, 12 of which have been acquired under Red Bull with the last coming in 2022-23 and have 9 Austrian Cup wins... all having come under Red Bull's ownership.

Salzburg's European record is far more patchy, especially given their unopposed qualification for two decades, with one Europa League semi-final to their name, and that coming back in 2017-18.

However, despite this distinct lack of success in European competition, Red Bull Salzburg were one of the clubs invited to compete in the World Club Cup in 2025. One cannot imagine why.

The real Salzburg reached the 1994 UEFA Cup final, losing to Inter Milan 🇮🇹 and boasts 5 League titles.

However, the high-water-mark for the club pre-dates the Red Bull invasion by more than a decade, after the 'real' Salzburg were runners-up to Inter Milan 🇮🇹 in the 1994 UEFA Cup final.

Salzburg aren't very popular, in, our outside the City. Indeed, protesting fans have set up a new club, unsubtly named SV Austria Salzburg and which has adopted the history of the original club prior to 2005. Claiming their first five titles, 92 years of history and are now playing in the Austrian second tier for the first time.

A far greater achievement than the crap energy drink makers have managed.