Dortmund: A tough task stopping Haaland – Rose
RB Leipzig coach Marco Rose admits that stopping Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, who is “crazy about scoring,” will be difficult.
On Wednesday, Rose’s team will face the strong English outfit and the prolific Haaland in the Champions League.
Rose is familiar with Haaland, having coached him at Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund.
The German said: “If he sees the goal – he is crazy about scoring. He is always there for the team, working for the team.
“He has improved his game a lot, his technical side, his movement and things around. Now he is playing for one of the best teams in the world and he is a world-class player.
“But I have great confidence in my team. We want to compete against one of the best teams in the world, see and look for opportunities.
“We want to be brave and want to solve all the problems and tasks – Haaland is one of them. We want to do it as a team.”
Haaland has 32 goals in 31 appearances for City in all competitions, but Rose knows that he is not the only potential danger his team faces in the first leg of their last-16 tie at the Red Bull Arena.
He said: “It is just a top, top squad with an outstanding coach. I told my lads we will need to suffer.
“But we shouldn’t see it as suffering, we should enjoy it. We should be able to close down the free spaces and interrupt the good combination play.
“We need to have fun and enjoy defending and winning the ball. Then it’s all about creating chances, taking advantage of certain chances that we can have.
“We want to compete with them and want to prove we also have a good team, with good players that can play at the top level. I see ourselves well prepared and there is great anticipation.”
Last season, before Rose took over at Leipzig, the two sides met in the group stage, with City winning 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium and the Germans winning 2-1 in what was a dead rubber in the return.
Rose took over as manager after Domenico Tedesco was fired last September and successfully led the team to the knockout stages, finishing second to holders Real Madrid in Group F.
Christopher Nkunku, who scored a hat-trick in last season’s loss at the Etihad and has 17 goals this season, is questionable after only recently returning from a knee injury.
