RB Salzburg out to ambush Bayern Munich in Champions League last-16 return leg

For an overachieving club in the Champions League, arriving at the most elevated stage usually leads to some personal farewells.

In the Red Bull Salzburg team who take on Bayern Munich in Bavaria on Tuesday for a place in the last eight are young players with impetus and ambition. They have not propelled their club this far without being noticed and sized up for potential summer transfers.

Their young manager, Matthias Jaissle, on whom there is also growing attention from bigger clubs in higher-profile leagues than Austria’s, acknowledged that as he plotted the finishing touches of a plan to surprise Bayern as effectively as Salzburg did in the first leg, taking the lead in the 1-1 draw.

“We want to bring through talent, so young players can make the next step,” said Jaissle, outlining the business model that has served Salzburg well enough to make them serial Austrian champions, but left them conscious of their middling place in two hierarchies: the one that governs the network of clubs under the Red Bull umbrella, and the wider natural order of Europe.

“The next step” for the likes of strikers Karim Adeyemi, 20, and Noah Okafor, 21; or for the creative Brenden Aaronson, 21, and 22-year-old midfielder Mo Camara is likely to be a move upwards before long.

Assuming their fitness and a summer transfer market that operates in the conventional, predatory, way they will all be the subject of interest.

Their price-tags have been raised by their mature, vibrant showings in an adventure that began in the play-off round for the Champions League, featured a group stage where Salzburg defied expectations to finish above Sevilla and Germany’s Wolfsburg and made history with a first-ever arrival in the last-16 of the competition.

Usu