A happy Madrid and a new Leipzig

Madrid and Leipzig met again a year later. A year later, the two opposing streams united again: blue blood football, represented by the white club, founder of the old European Cup and 14-time champion, and The reinvented football to which the Germans belong was born in 2009 with Red Bull money and newbies in almost everything. However, the whimsy of the late Dietrich Mateschitz, co-owner of an energy drink company, is solid. After several unsuccessful attacks on traditional clubs in Leipzig and other cities in Germany, he bought Markarstadt, an amateur team. They started in the fifth division and He reached the Bundesliga in just seven years. They have been in the top division for eight seasons, have never dropped below sixth place, have won the last two German Cups, Beat Bayern in the Summer Super Cup (3-0) And exactly four years ago they reached the Champions League semi-finals. Madrid have plenty of data to warn that a tough night awaits them at the Red Bull Arena (Watch today’s match live on As.com),

Although in the last Champions League group stage (a 2–0 white win at home and a 3–2 defeat in Germany), only a year has passed since the last confrontation in Leipzig. He has improved his team a lot, especially in attack. Sales increased over the summer (this brought in revenues of 243 million), They got rid of Guardiol (90), Szoboszlai (70) and Nkunku (60), and in the winter Forsberg and Werner moved, it was given on loan to Tottenham. to cover the club’s losses Openda signedThe Belgian striker for Lens who scored 21 goals last season and is the third top scorer in the Bundesliga this year. and cesco, a twenty-year-old Slovenian trained in Austria, who was a shuttler for Leipzig. Due to his size (1.94) and his scoring ability, comparisons with Haaland are inevitable. With him also arrived Xavi Simmons, a Dutchman who grew up in the Barça youth academy, on loan from PSG. Dani Olmo is the fourth man in attack, undoubtedly a strong point of Leipzig, with notable weaknesses in behind.

The rear, the Achilles heel of the Germans

Veteran Gulasi regains ownership Janis Blasevich conceded five goals against Stuttgart. He is one of four survivors of the team that was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2016, along with the starting centre-backs, Klosterman and Orban, and Danish Poulsen, the first replacement for the Openda-Cesco duo. This defense-attack imbalance has come to the fore in the Bundesliga: Leipzig is the team that scores the most goals after Leverkusen and Bayern and is the team that concedes the fewest balls, Weakness at the back leaves them in fifth place, just outside the champions zone, three points behind fourth-placed Borussia Dortmund, and with worrying recent results: one win in their last six games. On Saturday they lost by two points to Augsburg.

Marco Rose, their coach, had already led the team against Madrid last year and also faced the Whites under Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 20-21 season. Madrid could not win even a single match in Germany. Rose, grandson of an international footballer from the former GDRPlayed for six years under Jurgen Klopp at Mainz and was assistant coach to Thomas Tuchel in the same team. It preserves the fundamental traits of both schools (“Klopp shaped us all with his ideas about football and his way of getting along with people”). He ordered Leipzig into a 4–4–2, with Olmo and Simmons on the wings and Openda, faster, and Cesco, more powerful, up top. Her passion is to break lines and play with space. In fact, his Gladbach were the leaders 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 your opponents quickly. And if we lose it, we have to get it back soon. “You don’t have to play to the gallery.” In this way he summarizes his proposal.

Nacho is back

The game comes with Madrid without three of their centre-backs and without Bellingham. Once Nacho has recovered, he will partner Tchoumeni, who has had surprising success as a defender: four games, four wins, ten goals and none against the opposition. Three of their four games were at the Bernabéu, where the team was less exposed. In any case, Madrid, with Nacho, will be better protected in the aerial game and will need it: Openda and Cesco scored with headers against Augsburg on Saturday.

It wasn’t bad for Madrid either. Five wins in five games, without Bellingham, always with Brahim in relief. The Málaga player has already scored seven goals, the same as his best year at Milan, but in half the minutes. He has surprisingly scored in all four competitions. Today he will repeat in Madrid (although Joselu cannot be ruled out for anti-aircraft reasons) who has already recovered from a period of 16 syndrome: there he lost six times in the first decade of the century, but since then he Has lost and been eliminated only twice in that round. That vaccine has worked.