Young Boys – RB Leipzig
Champions League Group Stage Game 1
Bern, September 19, 18:45 CET
With the reputation of a team from the inner circle of the most efficient and offensively powerful on the continent this summer, RB Leipzig will host Young Boys in Switzerland, at the start of the group stage of the Champions League.
Heading into Tuesday's match in Bern, the German team has plenty of reasons to be confident. Behind them is a routine victory over Augsburg 3:0 in the Bundesliga at home, in a match in which the key players were not overly burdened. Before that and more importantly, RB Leipzig won 3:0 away against the excellent Union Berlin who will also play in the Champions League...
In total, in the last six games since the beginning of August, the RB Leipzig team scored as many as 19 goals!
On the other hand, Young Boys have not lost since the end of May (2:0 away to Lugano) in the domestic Swiss league. Since then, this team has played 18 matches and recorded 13 victories. However, it was almost exclusively about games against domestic opponents or teams that are not even close to the quality that RB Leipzig has.
Behind the Young Boys, essentially, there is only one serious test this season – a victory over the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa 3:0 at home, in a match played on August 29. With that triumph, Young Boys secured a place in the Champions League group stage.
For the guests, a potential problem could be that the pitch at the Bern Stadium is artificial grass. However, the team that counts on the sharp wing forwards Werner and Olmo (questionable for this duel due to a knee injury), as well as on perhaps the most effective pressing in European football at the moment - is objectively a distinct favorite.
The European football public, as well as bookmakers, rightly expect a large number of goals in this match, so betting on such an outcome is unfortunately not profitable. A triumph for the visitors is a realistic outcome, and one can hope for a potential victory for RB Leipzig by more than one goal difference. The German team is known for not giving up their on attacking even when they have a goal advantage, so you should expect a football spectacle from the beginning to the end of the duel.
The question is whether midfielder Ugrinic will be able to play for Young Boys due to injury. For the guests, it is expected that Openda and Poulsen will start in attack, and that Werner, Portuguese winger Carvalho and the improving Slovenian striker Sheshko will be ideal options for the last half hour of the game. The visitors have a big advantage in the middle of the field, they count on the quality of Forsberg, Simmons and Kampl...
The Germans have an ideal opportunity for a relatively routine victory away from home, with which they would already ease the way to the round of 16. The team that beat Bayern Munich 3:0 away from home last month, will certainly not allow themselves to stumble in this visit to Switzerland.