Leipzig aim to rebound from defeats when they meet PSG again

RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann has said after two recent setbacks that success is “not a door” but rather a “staircase” – but nonetheless hopes they will beat Paris Saint-Germain this time around in the Champions League after losing to them in the last semi-finals.

Berlin (dpa) – RB Leipzig have no time to dwell on two painful defeats from last week and their fate from August when they host Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.

PSG beat Leipzig 3-0 in the semi-finals of the past campaign played as a mini-tournament three months ago in Lisbon.

The French champions are favourites again even though star forwards Neymar and Kylian Mbappe will be missing for injury reasons.

Leipzig are coming off a 5-0 meltdown at Manchester United last week Wednesday, and then also lost in the Bundesliga for the first time on Saturday, 1-0 at Borussia Moenchengladbach, which cost them the league lead.

Victory against PSG is now a must for Julian Nagelsmann and his players if they want to position themselves well for a place in the knock-out stages in the group they started with a 2-0 win over Turkish champions Basaksehir.

“We learned certain lessons from the semi-finals,” Nagelsmann told Sky TV on Saturday.

“We also know that we are under pressure in the group stage. We have to win the game to simply not have this mega-pressure in the return leg against Paris, but rather to put the pressure on their side.

“If we don’t win that, we’ll be under pressure in the second game to reach six points. So one of the games is a must for us if we want to advance in the group stage.”

For Nagelsmann, that defeat in Manchester was a learning experience just as the August loss against PSG as Leipzig have only played top flight football since 2016 and are in only their third Champions League campaign.

“We have to accept that Wednesday’s match will leave an unfortunate page in the RBL history books, but we can’t forget the positives because of that,” he said.

“Success isn’t a door. It’s a stairway that you have to keep on climbing.”

Nagelsmann doesn’t have the depth in his squad other top teams like PSG or title holders Bayern Munich have but still has to rotate his players in a coronavirus-related congested fixtures list, while missing injured Germany defender Lukas Klostermann and Konrad Laimer.

Leipzig midfielder Christopher Nkunku is meanwhile upbeat that the Germans will do better this time around against star-studded PSG, the club he left last year to get more playing time.

“It is a chance for redemption,” the 22-year-old told Monday’s edition of Kicker sports magazine. “We know now how Paris play and it feels to be up against them on the pitch.”