2024-02-13 02:04:26
A year later Madrid and Leipzig meet once more. A year later, two antagonistic currents converge once more: blue blood football, represented by the white club, founder of the old European Cup and 14-time champion, and that resale football to which the Germans belong, born in 2009 with the Red Bull money and newcomers to almost everything. However, the whim of the late Dietrich Mateschitz, co-owner of the energy drink company, is solid. After several failed attacks on traditional clubs in Leipzig and other cities in Germany, he ended up buying the Markrastädt, an amateur team. It started in the fifth division and reached the Bundesliga in just seven years. They have been in the top category for eight seasons, they have never dropped below sixth place, they have won the last two German cups, they beat Bayern in the summer Super Cup (3-0) and just four years ago they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. Madrid has a lot of data to warn that a difficult night awaits them at the Red Bull Arena (follow today’s match live on As.com).
Although it has only been a year since the last confrontation, in the group stage of the last Champions League (white victory at home by 2-0 and defeat in Germany by 3-2), Leipzig has greatly reformed its squad, especially in attack. In a summer marked by sales (he earned 243 million), he got rid of Gvardiol (90), Szoboszlai (70) and Nkunku (60), and in the winter Forsberg and Werner left, this one on loan to Tottenham. To cover the casualties, the club signed Openda, a Belgian striker from Lens who scored 21 goals last season and who this year is the third top scorer in the Bundesliga, and Sesko, a twenty-year-old Slovenian trained in Salzburg, a shuttle of players for Leipzig. Due to his size (1.94) and his scoring ability, comparison with Haaland is inevitable. Along with them arrived Xavi Simons, a Dutchman raised in the Barça youth academy, on loan from PSG. Dani Olmo is the fourth man in the attack, undoubtedly Leipzig’s strong point, which has notable weaknesses behind him.
The rear, the Germans’ Achilles’ heel
The veteran Gulacsi has regained the starting place following Janis Blaswich conceded five goals once morest Stuttgart. He is one of the four survivors of the team that was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2016, along with the starting centre-backs, Klostermann and Orban, and the Danish Poulsen, the first replacement for the Openda-Sesko duo. This defense-attack imbalance is revealed in the Bundesliga: Leipzig is the team that shoots the most on goal following Leverkusen and Bayern and the one that recovers the fewest balls. The fragility at the back keeps them fifth, outside the Champions zone, three points behind Borussia Dortmund, fourth, and with worrying recent results: one win in the last six games. On Saturday they lost two points from Augsburg.
Loïs Openda, Leipzig’s great threat once morest Madrid.Filip SingerEFE
Marco Rose, their coach, already led the team last year once morest Madrid and also faced the whites in the 20-21 season at the head of Borussia Mönchengladbach. Madrid might not win either of the two games in Germany. Rose, grandson of an international footballer from the former GDR, played six years under Jürgen Klopp at Mainz and was Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coach on the same team. He maintains the fundamental traits of both schools (“Klopp shaped us all with his idea of football and his way of being with people”). He orders Leipzig in a 4-4-2, with Olmo and Simons on the wings and Openda, faster, and Sesko, more powerful, up front. His obsession is breaking lines and playing with space. In fact, his Gladbach was the leader in offsides in the Bundesliga. “I like to steal the ball at the top of the field. If we have possession, it is not to fall asleep. You have to move the ball and the opponents quickly. And if we lose it, we have to get it back soon. “You don’t have to play for the gallery.” This is how he summarizes his proposal.
Nacho returns
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The game comes to Madrid without three of its centre-backs and without Bellingham. Once Nacho has recovered, he will partner with Tchouameni, who has had surprising success as a defender: four games, four wins, ten goals for and none once morest. Three of his four games were at the Bernabéu, where the team is less exposed. In any case, Madrid, with Nacho, will be better protected in the aerial game and will need it: Openda and Sesko scored with a header once morest Augsburg on Saturday.
Ancelotti, at one point during the talk to his players in Leipzig. Filip SingerEFE
Madrid has not done badly without Bellingham either, five wins in five games, always with Brahim as relief. The man from Malaga has already scored seven goals, the same as in his best year at Milan but with half as many minutes. He has scored in all four competitions in a surprising emergence. Today he will repeat (although Joselu cannot be ruled out, due to anti-aircraft reasons) in a Madrid that has already overcome the round of 16 syndrome: there he lost six times in the first decade of the century, but since then he has only been eliminated twice in that round. That vaccine has worked.
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