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Gerhard Struber has got off to a winning start as Bristol City boss(Image: Photo by Ed Sykes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nBristol City kicked off their 2025\/26 Championship season with a 4-1 away win over Sheffield United at Bramall LaneGerhard Struber has got off to a winning start as Bristol City boss(Image: Photo by Ed Sykes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Gerhard Struber has detailed the change that his Bristol City<\/a> side made at half-time during their opening-day win over Sheffield United, with the Reds boss admitting that the manner of the result was a \u201csmall surprise\u201d to him and his staff.<\/p>\n The Reds kicked off their 2025\/26 campaign and the Austrian\u2019s tenure in the perfect fashion as a brace from Scott Twine, as well as goals from Ross McCrorie and Anis Mehmeti<\/a>, saw City beat last season\u2019s play-off finalists 4-1 at Bramall Lane on the opening weekend of the season.<\/p>\n Twine handed the Reds the lead with just five minutes played when he curled home an excellent free-kick before Tyrese Campbell levelled for the hosts nine minutes later. McCrorie then finished off a counterattack midway through the first half to restore the Robins\u2019 advantage, which was then extended further by Mehmeti just 30 seconds into the second half.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Sheffield United 1-4 Bristol City live: Twine, McCrorie and Mehmeti have Struber’s Reds on top<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City player ratings vs Sheffield United: Twine, Vitek, McCrorie shine as Robins run riot<\/a><\/p>\n Twine then doubled his tally for the day when he turned home five minutes later, courtesy of a healthy deflection off of the leg of Tyler Bindon. While Struber was expecting his side to compete well with the Blades<\/a>, even he was slightly taken aback by the end result.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, a really good performance from my boys today,\u201d he told Bristol Live<\/a>. \u201cWe expect today a good performance, but a result on this level against an opponent on this level is a small surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the boys invest everything today. How we fight together to win balls in the right areas, to come in transition moments and have, in the end, at the right moment a good decision and the right pass.<\/p>\n \u201cI think today, the connection between the boys in transition was on a real high level, and that creates for us, in the end, the goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the Robins headed into the break with the advantage, they were arguably fortunate to be ahead as United had spurned plenty of chances to draw level. Radek Vitek<\/a> did well to deny both Gustavo Hamer and Louie Barry, Harrison Burrows saw a shot saved by the Manchester United loanee and the Blades failed to take advantage of nine seperate corners.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n It was Ruben Selles\u2019 side who ended the first half in the ascendancy, but that momentum was ended just moments after the interval when Mehmeti turned Emil Riis\u2019 cross<\/a> past Cooper. The Dane had got to the byline after being picked out by Twine and found the winger waiting in the box to turn home.<\/p>\n To the naked eye, it had looked like Struber\u2019s side had just come out for the second half on the front foot, but the Austrian had made a slight change to the way in which the Reds operated without the ball.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were in the first half, to be honest, we didn\u2019t always find the best triggers,\u201d the head coach explained. \u201cWe had 15 to 20 minutes, and we also had a little bit of luck to get our goals, but we were not always clear in how we came up with our pressing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe changed it in the second half, we tried to do more things: close the passing lane, or realise to go into a pressing moment and nothing between.<\/p>\n \u201cI could feel a few little half-pregnant moments in the first half, but we changed this completely in the second half. Then what was crystal clear for us was that everyone was on the same page, and I could see synchronised defending and pressing moments.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘I love winning’ – Sophie Ingle’s first words as Bristol City confirm return of Wales midfielder<\/a>READ MORE: Tom Rawcliffe sheds light on Bristol City hierarchy’s responsibilities after appointment as CEO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City kicked off their 2025\/26 Championship season with a 4-1 away win over Sheffield United at Bramall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-331557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115001032983404858","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744476931_129_0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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