Soccer
After the break due to the international World Cup qualifiers, FC Bayern and RB Leipzig are well prepared for the top game in the German Bundesliga on Saturday evening (6:30 p.m.). “We’re in a good mood, Leipzig too,” said Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann. In the 4-1 first leg against his ex-club, the coach on the RB bench was still called Jesse Marsch. Now Domenico Tedesco is Leipzig’s coach, Nagelsmann knows him from times together in Hoffenheim and at the coaching course.
Bayern, six points ahead of Dortmund, want to continue the hunt for the number ten championship title in a row, while Leipzig want to keep up with third-placed Leverkusen. The Saxons have recently improved. “The team has become more stable again,” Nagelsmann praised Tedesco’s work: “We are extremely challenged.”
Tedesco does not classify the trip to Munich (6.30 p.m.) as a “bonus game”. After the last three wins in a row, a defeat is not planned. However, the task against the record champions is extremely challenging: “Finding weak points is very tough,” said Tedesco. In 2015/16, the two coaches obtained the coaching diploma at a young age. Since both were employed at TSG Hoffenheim, they formed a car pool. Tedesco was top of the class with a grade of 1.0 – Nagelsmann got a 1.3.
Duel of coaches “not decisive”
Nagelsmann is now 34, Tedesco 36. Although they know each other very well, according to Tedesco, a lot is still unpredictable: “Knowing the opposing coach and his ideas, but then using them in the game, are two different boots.” Nagelsmann joked : “In the end, it’s not the two Hansels who are waving around on the sidelines that are decisive, but who has the better players with the better form on the day, the greater desire and greater greed on the pitch.”
There is also a reunion for two Bayern pros. Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer, like Nagelsmann, moved from RB to Munich in the summer. In the overall package, almost 80 million euros flowed to Leipzig. Sabitzer in particular still has to fight hard for his place. The former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had recently been critical of the Austrian. “The first half of the season didn’t go well,” Nagelsmann said of the former RB captain. This was also due to injuries to the 27-year-old, who had trained well recently and “developed into a good squad size” in the new year.
Chaser duel on Sunday
On Sunday (3.30 p.m.) the next hit in the Bundesliga is the duel with the pursuers. However, before the comparison with Bayer Leverkusen, Dortmund has an eight-point lead over Leverkusen. These also have no points to give away. The table in the fight for the Champions League is closely staggered directly behind the Werkself. The 10,000 available tickets for the game were sold out within a quarter of an hour, and those in Cologne for the game against Freiburg even after a good ten minutes.
For Gladbach’s coach Adi Hütter, the situation will not get any easier after the departure of sports director Max Eberl. After six defeats from the last eight games, the “foals” need a sense of achievement on Saturday in the fight against falling back into a relegation zone. “I have the feeling that there is a now more than ever mentality,” said Hütter before the game at Arminia Bielefeld. Bielefeld is 14th, just one point behind Gladbach.
