Marco Rose is looking for an improved performance from his RB Leipzig side as they head to Manchester City on Tuesday hoping to banish the demons of their last visit.
Leipzig were thumped 7-0 on their last trip to the Etihad Stadium back in March, with Erling Haaland scoring five as the eventual champions cruised into the quarter-finals with a second-leg romping, having drawn 1-1 in the reverse fixture in Germany.
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A draw on Tuesday will clinch City’s place at the top of Group G, while Leipzig need a victory to keep their hopes of finishing as group winners alive into the final matchday.
Leipzig are already through regardless, and Rose wants his team to put in a better display than the one that saw them humiliated last season.
“Last year with the 7-0 thrashing, it put us down, it knocked us down,” Rose told reporters at his pre-match news conference. “We haven’t spoken about it, but it was not a good feeling after the game.
Hello from the other side 👋#MCIRBL pic.twitter.com/eEdZ2hzsBn
— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) November 27, 2023
“But we became cup champions in Germany after the game and we qualified for the Champions League, so it didn’t destroy us as a team.
“Tomorrow we want to do better for sure. We want to compete with one of the best teams in the world. We want to show that we can make it better, that we are better.
“It’s difficult. We will have to suffer tomorrow. I didn’t see a team here that had much possession. Even Liverpool I think had just 40 per cent possession.
“So we know what we’ll get but we are here to try again.”
Rose coached Haaland during his time at Borussia Dortmund, and he knows the threat the striker will bring in Tuesday’s game, saying: “I hope the relationship is as good as it always was but obviously he has to do his job tomorrow.
“We have to try and suppress him if we can. We’ll enjoy watching him play, but hopefully we’ll be able to stifle him.”
