In August 2020, Dani Olmo (r.) shot a club from Madrid out of the Champions League.
Photo: imago/Peter Schatz
On Saturday they were able to practice what it might feel like to make up for a 1-0 deficit, and that in an away stadium where completely different teams had recently stumbled. RB Leipzig is ready for the guest performance in the European football circus on Wednesday in Madrid. Even if a 4-1 win after an early deficit at VfL Bochum does not automatically promise a triumph at Real Madrid and the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is a few sizes larger than the stadium in Bochum, where FC Bayern had to bow down a few weeks ago .
A small miracle is needed if, after the 0-1 defeat in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League, something is to happen with a return to the round of the last eight. Memories are brought back to August 2020, when the Leipzig team even went one step further. At that time it was in the quarter-finals against Atlético Madrid and in the end there was the greatest success in the young history of the Leipzig club.
Circus Europe
Photo: Private
Previously simply the national champions’ cup, today the Champions League: a staged spectacle and football’s money-printing machine. Sven Goldmann looks ahead to the upcoming match day.
It was a strange football summer. Leipzig completed the round of 16 against Tottenham with wins in the first and second legs, but then came a final tournament with Corona in front of empty stands in Lisbon. RB went into the duel with two-time Champions League finalists Atlético as outsiders. The two-month Corona break had taken a toll on the team, and their top scorer Timo Werner had also disappeared to Chelsea.
Two Spaniards played a key role in defeating Atlético. Dani Olmo, trained at FC Barcelona, and Angeliño, who grew up at Deportivo La Coruña. Olmo scored the groundbreaking 1-0 shortly after the break. Atlético fought back and equalized with a penalty. The Portuguese Joao Felix made it 1-1, but Leipzig continued to play unimpressed. With extra time approaching, Angeliño replaced Tyler Adams, and his deflected shot made the Saxons one of the four best teams in Europe.
There was a little aftermath. It took place in the catacombs of the Estadio José Alvalade, where Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann had a non-verbal rencontre with his Madrid colleague Diego Simeone. Nagelsmann did not want to reveal any details in response to repeated questions and only indicated that the Argentinian Simeone, who is used to success, had not won this fight either: “I stood up to it!”
Nagelsmann’s triumph was a little lost in general appreciation because there was a second German-Spanish duel the next evening, the epochal 8-2 win by FC Bayern over FC Barcelona. Three more days later, Leipzig’s journey ended with a 3-0 defeat in the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain. Since then, RB has been a regular in the Champions League, but has never made it past the round of 16 again. It would take a small miracle if anything were to change in the current game.
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