It was significant of the evening that Pep Guardiola wasn’t asked a single question about the game by the British journalists after the 3-1 win at RB Leipzig.
The questions all revolved around individual players, joker Julian Alvarez, scorer to make it 2-1 (84th), assister to make it 3-1 (90th+2), or Rico Lewis, who set up Phil Foden’s 1-0 (25th minute). .). Lois Openda had equalized in the meantime (47th).
The Manchester City coach responded patiently and said about the game against Leipzig that he was happy to have won after two recent wins. That’s it, not necessarily arrogant, but games like the one against Leipzig are somehow small fish games for the reigning Champions League winners. They have to be eaten, the big opponents only come in the knockout phase.
Marco Rose had a completely different opinion about the game. The RB Leipzig coach seemed in a good mood after the defeat. His squad held an undeserved 1-1 for over 80 minutes. He also seemed to have gotten a lot out of his fifth duel (four defeats, one draw) with the Spanish innovator Guardiola.
RB coach Rose is learning his lessons
Lesson number one: “We learn from this that it makes sense to worry about possession of the ball. We want to get better there, we don’t want to end up with 13 percent after 20 minutes.” The defending champions dominated the Saxons with outstanding ball security, especially in the first half, and in the end it was 68 to 32 percent possession.
Despite the defeat, Leipzig has the best chance of progressing. With three points they are second behind the English champions. The competition from Belgrade and Bern took points from each other in a direct duel with a 2-2 draw.
Rose: “We learn from the best”
Leipzig had previously not lost both home games against City, from which star coach Pep Guardiola learned his lessons. Lesson number two: “Pep deliberately wants to make us press even less by letting us play even more patiently, using even more short triangles,” explained Rose. “In the beginning he wasn’t really interested in scoring goals.”
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Nothing surprised him, but “you can come up with 1,000 plans, but in the end it’s Manchester City.” Rose would have liked his team to make better decisions, especially in the first half, when they had the ball. But: “We learn from the best”