Even Toni Kroos jumped to the side of the Leipzig team in their frustration over what they felt was a stolen goal. “It was a goal, it should have been given,” said the German midfield star from Real Madrid to the Prime Video broadcaster after the Royal team’s rather flattering 1-0 win in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League at RB Leipzig.
But Benjamin Sesko’s header after just 97 seconds didn’t count. That made some people at RB angry and had an impact long after the final whistle.
“I don’t know what we did wrong that we didn’t get the goal, that was a bad decision,” complained sports director Rouven Schröder, coach Marco Rose said: “I have no idea what was whistled, it wasn’t offside, it wasn’t a foul .” Because Sesko was not offside when he headed the ball – and Benjamin Henrichs behind goalkeeper Andrij Lunin was uninvolved.
Rose: “Don’t make a referee story out of it”
The 47-year-old Rose still “didn’t want to make a referee story out of it.” What is more important to him is insight. “When he looks at it, he admits the mistake. If he does it, then I’m fine with it too. I make mistakes too, sometimes two or three a day. The important thing is that you own up to it.”
The referee team from Bosnia-Herzegovina around Irfan Peljto was not corrected by video referee Pol van Boekel from the Netherlands. And Peljto, who had only refereed eight Champions League games and made his first appearance in the knockout phase, didn’t want to be on the TV screen. “It’s difficult to accept, but we don’t want to complain,” said Schröder about the exciting scene.
There was also agreement about the only valid goal of the evening from Brahim Diaz in the 49th minute. “A dream goal, you have to accept that,” said Rose about the gala appearance of the 24-year-old, who was an excellent replacement for the ailing Jew Bellingham. “He scored a spectacular goal, unbelievable,” said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti: “Whenever he played in place of Jude, he did a good job.”
Annoyed Olmo not happy
Diaz, who was due to be examined immediately after a blow to his ankle on Wednesday, first circled around national player David Raum before the decisive moment in the game, then prevailed while dribbling against Xavi Simons and Xaver Schlager and finally skilfully flicked the ball past Willi Orban and Peter Gulacsi into the goal.
Dani Olmo also had to be amazed, as he didn’t have the brilliant moments he had hoped for. “We are not happy with the result because we had several chances to score but didn’t. Brahim Diaz has a lot of quality and took his chance,” said Olmo, who left the pitch visibly annoyed when he was substituted.
Despite the away win, Ancelotti doesn’t expect a sure-fire success at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu on March 6th. “We have to be careful in the second leg. RB Leipzig is a team where you have to suffer. We now have a small advantage and can then count on our stadium.”
Rose also wants to compete in Madrid
Rose announced a similarly courageous performance: “We’re going there to take the next step in development as a team. We definitely want to show ourselves and be the best possible, most difficult opponent.”
For now, the only thing that counts is the Bundesliga game this Saturday (6.30 p.m./Sky) against his former club Borussia Mönchengladbach. After the 2-2 loss in Augsburg, he is calling for “more self-image” in the fight for the Champions League places. The return is too little for the effort.
