“It was extremely painful.” When RB Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco watched the Europa League final between Frankfurt and Glasgow on Wednesday (May 18, 2022), the pain came up again. The pain of the missed cup chance, because “we weren’t that far away”, the RB coach looks back on Leipzig’s semi-final in Glasgow. On Saturday (June 21, 2022) in the DFB Cup final, Tedesco finally wants to celebrate with the cup and the first major title in the young club history of RB Leipzig.
Gulacsi: “We were very close very often”
“Hunger is extremely big,” reveals RB goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi at the press conference on Friday (May 20, 2022), a good 35 hours before kick-off in Berlin. “We were often very close to achieving something big. We want to crown our path and win the title,” says the Hungarian. Gulacsi has already been in the cup final twice with RB, as well as in the Champions League and Europa League semi-finals. The Leipzig lost each. And against Freiburg?
Leipzig and the cup experience
Experience plays a big role for Tedesco, it could be decisive on Saturday: “It can’t hurt to have played a final before. I haven’t played a semi-final in Europa. Now it’s in my head, in my heart, in the bones and can draw conclusions from that. Maybe that also happens automatically with the players,” says the German-Italian.
Tedesco has all the players on board
In the “Company Final Victory” Tedesco can draw on unlimited staff, has his entire team on board, including the six RB players who were in the cup final in 2019 and 2021 and attacker Christopher Nkunku, who only became a Bundesliga player this week of the season was chosen.
Prank: “If not, the world won’t end”
SC Freiburg wants to prevent the Leipzig Cup victory. The team of SC coach Christian Streich is in a cup final for the first time. The legendary Black Forest coach comes into play with demonstrative understatement: “If we win the cup, it would be nice. If not, the world won’t end either,” says the 56-year-old.
Steich: “You don’t notice any nervousness”
Streich also knows that mentality is what counts in the final: “Our boys have come an extraordinary way. They are very, very hungry. But they are not that tense. You don’t notice any nervousness,” explains Streich and adds with a look on the experience in the team and the speech before the game: “They have battles against relegation behind them, they have been relegated and promoted. They have achieved a lot. I don’t have to do anything special.”
Penalties shoot? Tedesco: “I transformed mine”
In the Bundesliga, the two teams drew 1-1 twice this season. Tedesco remembers “a very compact, deep Freiburg team. We didn’t manage to create numerous chances to score,” says the 37-year-old, for whom Freiburg is “a top German club” because: “Our main competitor to fourth place in the Bundesliga was Freiburg.” So after the close games in the Bundesliga, will there be another 1-1 draw and then a decision on penalties? “Yes, of course,” says Tedesco, which is why penalties were also practiced. “I transformed mine,” he adds with a grin.
Dirk Hofmeister