Celtic’s Champions League rivals RB Leipzig are looking to arrest their defensive frailties according to captain Peter Gulacsi.
Marco Rose’s side have conceded a number of soft goals in multiple losses in recent weeks, including a thumping 3-0 defeat to Rose’s former side Borussia Monchengladbach before the international break.
The veteran goalkeeper was quick to assess his own part in Leipzig’s recent defensive horror shows, with Gulacsi guilty of a glaring error in the 4-1 home defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk that led to the departure of manager Domenico Tedesco.
As reported by RB Live (Translated using DeepL Translate), Gulacsi said: “I am the first to look at myself and analyse and reflect on my performance. I made a mistake against Donetsk – something like that has never happened to me before in my career and hopefully it won’t happen again.
“It’s a team problem. If we don’t defend so stably as a team, it’s not easy as a goalkeeper. We need to be much more consistent and stable defensively as a team.
“We have to work with all eleven players against the ball. We did an outstanding job of that in the second half of the season. We have to bring that back onto the pitch.”
Huge opportunity for Celtic against bruised Group F rivals
When the draw for Champions League Group F was made, many assumed it would be a straight shootout between Celtic and Leipzig for second spot and qualification to the last 16, with Real Madrid certain to run away with 1st spot.
Whilst Los Blancos have played their part so far, Shakhtar’s unbeaten start has torn up the script and left qualification for the knockout phases wide open for the rest of the group.
Next week’s away tie presents a huge opportunity for Celtic to put some daylight between themselves and their German opponents who are yet to register a single point in Group F.
Leipzig go into the weekend’s Bundesliga game with Bochum having won one of their last five fixtures, against manager Marco Rose’s previous club Dortmund, conceding at least two in every other game.
Whilst they’re still a side bursting with quality, Ange Postecoglou will see these two fixtures against Rose’s side as a serious chance to get Celtic’s Champions League campaign up and running following a credible point against Donetsk in Warsaw.
In other news: Matt O’Riley has already made his Celtic future mindset and focus clear
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