Sabitzer played in Leipzig for six years from 2015 to 2021, Laimer from 2017 to 2023, both came from Red Bull Salzburg and made the jump to Bayern Munich via Leipzig. The currently injured Xaver Schlager, Seiwald and Baumgartner are currently wearing the Leipzig colors, appropriately in red and white. While Schlager is an absolute fixture, the duo are also trying to develop further in Leipzig, following in the footsteps of Sabitzer and Laimer.
For Laimer, it is certainly a special return to his former home. “For me personally and others in the team, it is nice to play in a stadium where we have played for a long time and had good experiences. That is certainly an advantage, I know the stadium inside and out,” said Laimer, who won the DFB Cup twice with the “Red Bulls”, in an interview with ORF.
“Experienced many good and beautiful moments”
Laimer also stressed: “I’ve experienced many good and beautiful moments there, but that doesn’t help me in this game. The stadium is beautiful, the grass is beautiful, but it’s a football pitch and it’s up to us to fill it with life. It’s a special game and I hope there will be another beautiful moment here.”
Laimer looks forward to returning to Leipzig
For some ÖFB team players, Tuesday’s round of 16 match against Turkey in Leipzig is a kind of home game. Former Leipzig player Konrad Laimer spoke in an ORF interview about whether familiarity with the stadium could lead to a home advantage.
Rangnick, who turned 66 on Saturday, has also experienced some great moments here. The Swabian took over command of the world of Red Bull football in 2012 and was initially sports director in Salzburg and Leipzig before entrusting his student Christoph Freund with the Austrian affairs in 2015 and eventually leading Leipzig into the German Bundesliga as a coach. From his terrace he could see the arena where the Austrian team will be playing on Tuesday. “It has the feel of a home game, it’s a trip to the old homeland,” said Rangnick.
Rangnick led Leipzig into Bundesliga
Rangnick has since sold his apartment in Leipzig. The former teacher is still connected to the city, however – not least because of his foundation, which is dedicated to equal opportunities for primary school children in Leipzig. Rangnick says he visits the city in Saxony three to five times a year, which was rescued from football obscurity by Red Bull in 2009. The fifth division club SSV Makranstädt became RB Leipzig, and it took seven years for the club to reach the top division.
IMAGO/Picture Point LE/Kerstin Dslitzsch Rangnick led Leipzig from the fourth division to the Bundesliga
When Rangnick started as sporting director in Leipzig in 2012, the club parted ways with Peter Pacult, the coach at the time. One year later, the club achieved what was probably the most important promotion to the third division, and in 2016, the club achieved promotion to the Bundesliga, where Rangnick himself was in the coaching chair. In 2018/19, the sporting director took over the helm once again before slowly retiring and later trying his luck at Manchester United.
As ÖFB team manager, he now has many players from his Salzburg and Leipzig days under his wing who have Red Bull football in their much-quoted DNA. Rangnick does not want the team to be reduced to that: “That doesn’t really make sense, because we also invest a lot of time in what we do with the ball. What we play suits the players perfectly, and that’s what it’s all about in the end.” But according to Laimer, having the same training “can’t hurt.”
Whistles hit Sabitzer
Last summer, he made the jump to Bayern Munich after 190 games for Leipzig, and Sabitzer did the same two years before that. He was apparently not forgiven for this, although the midfielder was unable to gain a foothold in Munich anyway and then played for Manchester United and is now enjoying success at Borussia Dortmund. Sabitzer, who played 229 games for Leipzig and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League with the Saxons, reported after the Netherlands game that he is booed when he now plays in Leipzig.
debate
How far will Austria get in the European Championship?
“I don’t really know why, because I always performed well at Leipzig. That really affected me.” Laimer has not had this experience, at least he hasn’t heard any boos. “At least I can’t remember it,” emphasised the midfielder, who has only played once in Leipzig since his move.
Baumgartner and Seiwald not quite arrived yet
Apart from the injured Xaver Schlager, the two current Austrians under coach Marco Rose still have room for improvement in Leipzig. Seiwald, who has played 18 consecutive games for the national team, only played the full game twice in the last Bundesliga season, while Baumgartner never played a full game at all.
IMAGO/Picture Point LE/Gabor Krieg Baumgartner and Seiwald are under contract with RB Leipzig alongside the currently injured Xaver Schlager
“It was a season of ups and downs in Leipzig,” said the 24-year-old Baumgartner, who is the team’s top scorer. Leipzig spent almost 60 million euros on transfer fees for its ÖFB trio. Baumgartner became the most expensive ÖFB player in history with a reported transfer fee of more than 25 million euros last summer. The attacker scored five league goals in his first season at RB.
Only European Championship stadium in the East
Both will be in the starting line-up in the round of 16. The Leipzig Stadium, as the arena on the site of the old Central Stadium is officially called at the European Championships, has a capacity of 40,000 spectators for tournament matches and, as at the 2006 World Cup, is the only arena in the former territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
ORF/Bernhard Kastler The last quarter-finalist will be determined in the Leipzig Arena on Tuesday
On Tuesday, the fourth and final European Championship match will take place in the smallest stadium of the finals in the city of 620,000 inhabitants, to which the ÖFB team traveled two hours by bus on Monday. The most recent 1:1 match between Croatia and Italy saw a heated atmosphere in the architecturally successful football cauldron, and the same can be expected in the last round of 16.
2024-07-01 12:46:47
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