The pouring rain in Belgrade didn’t bother the people of Leipzig. Neither coach Marco Rose nor his players, who hugged and high-fived each other. Despite the wet conditions, they thought they were on the sunny side of their footballing lives. RB won 2-1 at Red Star and not only celebrated their third victory in the fourth game of the Champions League, but also qualified for the round of 16. In the two remaining games at Manchester City and against Young Boys Bern, Leipzig can no longer be pushed out of one of the top two places in the table.
“It’s a great feeling to have progressed. We wanted to win and we did it. It wasn’t easy. We played a very good first half and found good solutions, we just should have scored more goals,” said Emil Forsberg, who himself pleaded guilty to poor use of chances.
This was also recently discussed in Leipzig. Leipzig did not score in their two most recent competitive defeats in Wolfsburg (0:1) and Mainz (0:2). Coach Rose then called for more visibility from those players who, thanks to their outstanding abilities, are able to turn a football game around. Rose’s displeasure was clearly noticeable.
Rose: “We should have led higher earlier”
The best listener was Xavi Simons, who scored in the early stages after a fine individual performance. His goal calmed the excited crowd in the stadium, which expressly did not include the 550 Leipzig residents who had traveled with him. Red Star, known for its at least spirited audience, tried to force Leipzig into a heated exchange from the start. This plan didn’t work as well due to the early goal conceded; RB was the better team. “We played a very good first half with lots of chances and should have led higher,” said coach Rose.
But because that wasn’t true, the game remained open for a long time. Red Star, European Cup winners in 1991, needed at least a draw to maintain their chance of reaching the round of 16. If we lost, it was clear that it wouldn’t work. The knowledge of their own vulnerability paralyzed the hosts, and only at times did they cause danger. “We deserved to lose today and we could have conceded even more goals. But we had good moments in the second half and in the end we could have made it 2-2,” Belgrade coach Barak Bakhar aptly analyzed.
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After the supposed preliminary decision by Lois Openda, Red Star immediately scored, and towards the end of the game Leipzig’s goalkeeper Janis Blaswich had to save several times. “At the back we really needed a strong goalkeeper and put up a big fight. The game should give us a boost for the next few weeks,” said Rose. And the certainty of having completed all of your duties in the Champions League early on.
