Celtic piled more misery on RB Leipzig by inflicting a fourth defeat in four games on the German side in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Despite being seeded in Pot 1, Leipzig are sitting on zero points and are at great risk of not even finishing in the play-off phase of this newly revamped Champions League format.
No wonder manager Marco Rose was a little touchy in his post-match press conference because Celtic put his side to the sword.
Nicolas Kuhn’s stunning brace inspired Celtic to a famous win and one of the best European performances the club has produced in many a year.
The last time Brendan Rodgers came up against German opposition, his team conceded seven to Borussia Dortmund, but it was a completely different story this time around.
There is no doubt that Celtic deserved to beat Leipzig, and what’s even more impressive is that they did it after falling behind.
No wonder the opposition manager wasn’t a happy man as he saw red in his presser.
Marco Rose bites at journalist over ‘pressure’ question after Celtic beat RB Leipzig
Before the game, Rose spoke about his love for Celtic as he was in a buoyant mood and ready for his side to perform at Parkhead.
But, after the full-time whistle, all of that had flipped on its head and he wasn’t a happy man in his post-match press conference.
Rose was asked by a German journalist about how his side dealt with the ‘pressure’, but rather than answer the question straight, he proceeded to take exception to the individual asking the question smiling at him.
The RB Leipzig boss then proceeded to answer the question and explained how, in the build-up, they discussed Celtic’s individual brilliance, which in the end was showcased by Kuhn for the equalising goal, as posted by Bild.
He began the interview with the question: “We talked about pressure before the game, how did your team deal with it?”
Rose replies, “Are you smiling?”
To which Rieker replies: “Because I’m a friendly person.”
Rose: “Ok, then you stay as you are.”
Rieker: “No, that was meant quite seriously. Why should I look at you angrily?”
Rose: “We’re talking about a pressure situation and you smile. That kind of… But, I’ll still answer the question professionally.”
“I think that in the first five minutes, we saw exactly the processes of Celtic that we discussed before,” added Rose.
“From the 10th to the 35th minute, it was a very decent game from us with the lead. Then we get the 1-1 through a nice individual action, that was of course also a topic beforehand. Before the break, we didn’t defend well and consistently enough – as we did before the second goal in Dortmund. We have to have duels and not let them get to where they can finish. There you go.”
Celtic flip performance against Leipzig weeks after Dortmund hammering
When Celtic were beaten by Dortmund, the bad memories started flooding in again from fans and how it was the same old, same old.
Many feared the worst that nothing had changed or will change.
But then, Rodgers showed a different side to his game against Atalanta, and since then, everything is on the up and fans are rightfully dreaming again in Europe.
As posted by BBC Sport, against Dortmund, Celtic had 47.4%, nine shots at goal and two on target, whilst their opponents had 16 shots and 13 of them on target.
Added to that, the Bundesliga club also had an incredible 40 touches in the opposition box compared to Celtic’s 12, including eight corners being forced to the away side’s four.
It’s fair to say that all of that has now changed because the Bhoys dominated the possession against Leipzig – 60.4% to 39.6% – and had 17 shots on goal compared to their opponents’ ten, as posted by BBC Sport.
Then the champions of Scotland had 25 touches in the opposition penalty area compared to Leipzig’s 15, including forcing seven corners.
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