0: 3 against Mainz: RB Leipzig in crisis

Leipzig. Sports director Max Eberl and new sports director Rouven Schröder followed one of RB Leipzig’s highest Bundesliga home defeats with petrified expressions. And coach Marco Rose admitted shortly after the bitter 0: 3 (0: 1) against FSV Mainz 05: “They were better in almost every respect.”

In the fight for the Champions League, the Saxon Bundesliga club had to accept a serious setback – even if they are only two points behind fourth place.

“I don’t want to deny my team’s will,” said Rose, a former Mainz player himself. “That means that we are in a phase where the head may be added. We have a lot to work on there.” Time is running out, on Wednesday (8:45 p.m.) we play against Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup.

“This is a chance for us,” said Emil Forsberg and was more than self-critical about the team: “We didn’t have enough solutions, it doesn’t feel good. We had no dynamism, no solutions, no creativity, all of that was missing.”

RB continue without a goal

Above all, RB was already the third game without a goal. “We’ve always scored a lot of goals. But sometimes you have periods like that, it’s about passion, mentality, attitude that we keep the level up, push each other. Then the goals come,” said the Sweden international. Looking at Dortmund, he said: “We have to come back as a team, with everything.”

Sports Director Eberl had just before the kick-off again emphasized the priority for the Champions League qualification. He spoke of “a slap in the office” if it didn’t succeed. In addition, it would “not be nice for several personalities if we didn’t qualify and not for us as a club anyway,” he said on Sky.

For Mainz, the first win ever in the Leipzig Arena after the 8-0 defeat in November 2019 was more than a satisfaction. “We played an absolutely top game, I’m very proud of my team, they implemented the plan really well,” said coach Bo Svensson. “It’s also an exceptional place for us to win. My team implemented that extremely well.”

Marcus Ingvartsen (9th minute) gave the visitors the lead in front of 45,597 spectators before Ludovic Ajorque (57th) and Dominik Kohr (67th) increased. For RB it was the third defeat in a row after the 0:7 at Manchester City and the 0:1 at VfL Bochum. “Today we had bigger chances again that we didn’t take,” said Rose. “It was a bad home game for us.”

The fans had acknowledged that accordingly. “We want to see you fight,” demanded the RB supporters in the final minutes. But only Mainz could convince.

More articles from this category can be found here: 1. Bundesliga