Leipzig rues another defeat before tackling winless start to Champions League
Leipzig’s Willi Orban, front, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the German Bundesliga soccer match between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig in Sinsheim, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Uwe Anspach/dpa via AP)
BERLIN (AP) — Leipzig’s season is not going to plan after four games in a row without a win.
It next plays in the Champions League, where it has lost all four games so far.
The energy drink-backed team squandered a lead three times and lost 4-3 at Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday, losing to a side that hadn’t won any of its previous three games.
Despite the result, Leipzig coach Marco Rose warmly congratulated counterpart Christian Ilzer on his successful debut. Hoffenheim appointed Ilzer, the former Sturm Graz coach, to replace the fired Pellegrino Matarazzo the week before.
Unless Rose shows he can oversee a turnaround, he risks sharing Matarazzo’s fate.
Saturday’s loss was Leipzig’s third straight defeat away from home. It was also the fifth time this season the Red Bull-backed club had squandered a lead before losing a game.
“It’s a big disappointment, no question,” Leipzig sporting director Marcel Schäfer said of Saturday’s loss. “We really wanted to start these intensive weeks before Christmas with a successful result.”
Rose rued his team’s lack of intensity and concentration after scoring.
“I’ll have to take the blame as coach if I don’t manage to give my team enough fire, courage and passion before a Bundesliga game to take it on the field,” Rose said. “We have to work out solutions. We’ll find ways and work our way out together.”
Leipzig next visits Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“The clock is ticking,” Schäfer said. “You shouldn’t throw away a game or a whole year in your career.”
But midfielder Christoph Baumgartner knows his team faces a tough ask in Milan, where Inter is unbeaten in 11 Champions League home games and only conceded in two.
“It’s going to be very difficult for us to progress now,” Baumgartner said after losing 3-1 at Celtic. “We have been ahead in three games now and we’ve still lost them. You can’t make the mistakes we have made in the Champions League and get away with it.”
Nor in the Bundesliga.
After Inter, Leipzig next hosts Wolfsburg on Saturday, then in-form Eintracht Frankfurt in the third round of the German Cup on Dec. 4, before a visit to Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga, where Leipzig is already eight points behind leader Bayern Munich.
“The fact is, if we play like this, we can’t get many points in the Bundesliga,” Rose said. “As well as the problem with results, we have a problem with performance.”
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer