Resistance to logic is one of the phenomena that has always fascinated people and has made the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu a legendary football stadium. This was also remembered before the game against RB Leipzig. By a banner that was stretched out in the Fondo Sur, as the south stand is called.
“El Madrid siempre vuelve” read there, translated: “Real Madrid always comes back.” Against Leipzig there was no need to come back. At least not in the narrower sense, like against PSG, Chelsea or Manchester City in the last victorious Champions League season, when Real Madrid still turned knockout games at the last minute. So much could be said at the end of Wednesday: that Leipzig was only brought to its knees at the end by goals from Federico Valverde (80th) and Marco Asensio (90th + 1). Real Madrid 2 – RB Leipzig 0. “Befitting the rank,” said the new Leipzig coach Marco Rose and smiled at the end of a brief but coherent analysis: “Disappointing result, appealing performance.”
It was obvious to the Leipzig players that they wanted to offer the best possible version of themselves at the Bernabéu. Especially because they wanted to forget the disastrous performance from the previous week against Shakhtar Donetsk (1: 4). Her attitude to the game has long elevated her above Real Madrid players. Their Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti would later say that he was particularly upset in the first half because his team had not implemented the match plan.
The young midfielders would have pressed much too impetuously and far too high, so that they repeatedly invited Leipzig to the counterattacks that Ancelotti wanted to avoid. Only: Christopher Nkunku (5th/28th/34th), Timo Werner (11th/30th) and Emil Forsberg (21st) could not use their good chances, Real Madrid came “out of the fog” to 2-0 -Sieg, like the newspaper on Thursday El Mundo wrote. “In the end we lacked a bit of courage and we weren’t quite there in two situations. But that’s the way it is in football: in the end you get what you deserve,” said Marco Rose.
In the end, Xaver Schlager, who worked diligently with Amadou Haidara in defensive midfield, didn’t want to completely contradict the hypothesis of the lack of strength. “From the seventieth or eightieth minute I noticed that I had a few kilometers behind me,” said the Austrian; Confronting players like Vinícius, Rodrygo or the goalscorer Valverde is then no longer so easy: “They just have so much speed …” Schlager was still annoyed: “We were almost countered at Real. That’s bitter, that must not happen under any circumstances.” Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi was also contrite. “You can’t buy anything for 80 minutes,” said Leipzig’s Hungarian captain.
What remained, on the other hand, was the diagnosis that Leipzig was finding itself after weeks of confusion. Rose rejected the option of operating with a three-man or five-man defense instead of a back four because of the wing-heavy choreography of the Madrid offensive, but “also because we felt comfortable against Dortmund”. Leipzig won 3-0 against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. “I think we did very well against the ball against Real Madrid. The way we played gives me confidence,” said Rose after completing his first week as Leipzig coach.
It’s “fun to work with the team,” said Rose; From what he has seen so far, Leipzig is a real “team” that works, listens and reacts relatively quickly to new ideas. The next new impulse is now ante portas. According to the journal table football Max Eberl will be introduced as Leipzig’s new sporting director in the days after Saturday’s game at Rose’s ex-club Borussia Mönchengladbach. The amount of the transfer fee is still open. One thing is certain: it will be in the seven-digit euro range.