Champions League: Leipzig Out to Cause Another Bloodied Nose

RB Leipzig vs Liverpool

The joint leaders of the Bundesliga up against the leaders of the English Premier League makes this Champions League group stage encounter one of the stand-outs of the week.

After a whirlwind run, which saw the club promoted four times in six years after being founded in 2009, RB Leipzig have found the going a bit tougher in recent times.

Indeed, the list of the players they have had to sell makes impressive reading – Josko Gvardiol, Christopher Nkunku, Naby Keïta, Dani Olmo, Timo Werner, Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano to list just seven.

Just imagine what a team they could have if they had held onto such names.

Yet they have still managed to give some of the big boys of the game a bloodied nose, all the while reaching the semi-finals of this competition in 2020 and the last four of the Europa League two seasons ago.

They now welcome one of the sides which have snapped up some of their best talent in recent times (Keita, Konate and Dominik Szoboszlai).

Talking Points

Both sides have made fine starts to the 2024-25 campaign.

Leipzig are actually joint top of the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and remain unbeaten.

Their run continued last weekend when they saw off Mainz 2-0, thanks to first half goals from Xavi Simons and Willi Orban.

It maintained their impressive unbeaten run and set a domestic club record for points after seven matches.

They played that contest without a number of long-term injured, including David Raum (ligament), but on a brighter note they have plenty of exciting talent in attack.

This includes talented young Dutchman, Simons, who will be keen to make his mark against his compatriot and national team captain Virgil van Dijk.

While unbeaten domestically, they have had no Champions League highlights to enjoy so far.

Liverpool are the current Premier League table leaders — Liverpool’s Curtis Jones during their Premier League match against Chelsea

After being edged out by Atletico Madrid in their first game, they were pipped to victory by Juventus last time out in Europe, a game they should have won after leading twice through a Bejamin Sesko brace, only to go down 3-2 against 10 men.

As well as Simons and Sesko is top scorer Lois Openda who sustained a knock in the closing stages of the Mainz victory, but the Belgian played down his issue and insisted that he would be fine for Wednesday.

The same goes for Amadou Haidara, who also suffered an injury scare in the second half of the Mainz clash.

Liverpool have got much more strength in depth but an injury issue of their own in forward Diogo Jota who left the field in their victory over Chelsea on Sunday.

He is likely to be replaced by big money forward Darwin Nunez.

Unlike Leipzig, Liverpool have won both their European games to date with comfortable victories over Milan and Bologna and, while they have tasted defeat domestically, to Nottingham Forest last month, they have a point advantage at the summit.

Many readers will know my views on the new-look Champions League format which, due to there being eight group games, means the competition is geared towards the established heavyweights making the knockout stages.

This encounter, though, should be one of the genuinely most exciting meetings at this stage as underdogs Leipzig look to upset the odds again in a bid to avoid facing early elimination.

History

Given Leipzig never played in Germany’s top flight until eight years ago, it’s probably no surprise they and Liverpool have not locked horns much.

Their European combat so far amounts to two last-16 ties in the Champions League in 2021, both games won 2-0 by the Merseysiders, both games played behind close doors due to the Covid pandemic.

The first tie was played in Hungary rather than Germany when two quick fire goals from Mo Salah and Sadio Mane early in the second half won the day.

It was an identical outcome in the second game and the scorers were the same as Liverpool sealed a 4-0 aggregate win.