RBL vs. Celtic: A look back at the clashes of 2018
The sides met in the Europa League group stage four years ago | RBL won the home fixture 2-0 | Cetlic were victorious in the away fixture | Nine Leipzig players from back then are still in today’s squad
Wednesday’s clash with Celtic will be the third meeting between the two sides. The first two meetings were back in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League group stage.
While RB Leipzig deservedly won the home fixture 2-0, Celtic ran away 2-1 winners in the away fixture. Nine Leipzig players from back then are still in the squad today.
A look back at the 2018 Europa League group stage
25th October 2018: RB Leipzig 2-0 Celtic
Both Celtic and RBL were sat on three points after two games when they went into this clash. Both sides had also enjoyed wins over Rosenborg and had suffered defeats to RB Salzburg. Willi Orbán, Lukas Klostermann, Kevin Kampl and Konrad Laimer were the stand-out performers in this match and all four were in the starting XI. Marcel Halstenberg, Yussuf Poulsen and Timo Werner all started on the bench, whereas Emil Forsberg was missing due to injury. Yvon Mvogo took Péter Gulácsi’s place in goal.
Our then coach Ralf Rangnick made eight changes to the starting XI and switched the formation from a 4-2-2-2 to a 4-3-3 after around twenty minutes. The tactical change paid dividends when Matheus Cunha scored from a Marcel Sabitzer cross to give his side the lead (31’). Bruma then doubled the hosts’ advantage two minutes later (34’). There were no further goals in the game despite the fact that Leipzig had numerous opportunities. 38,126 were in attendance at the RB-Arena as the Red Bulls comfortably picked up all three points.
8th November 2018: Celtic 2-1 RB Leipzig
Two weeks later, the sides met for the return fixture at Celtic Park. 56,000 fans were packed into the stadium as the home team looked to make amends. Willi Orbán started in the back four whereas Konrad Laimer took his place on the right of the midfield. Halstenberg, Kampl and Klostermann started on the bench. Poulsen, Werner and Forsberg didn’t travel to Scotland due to injury.
RBL didn’t get off to the best of starts in this game, as Kieran Tierney put the hosts 1-0 up after just eleven minutes. Both teams had chances as the game progressed but they both lacked the cutting edge. Jean-Kevin Augustin grabbed a Leipzig equaliser in the 78th minute, but incredibly, Celtic regained the lead just 13 seconds after the restart. The score remained 2-1 and the team from Glasgow took all three points. Leipzig ultimately failed to reach the knockout phase in the Europa League that year.
