RB Leipzig: Starting training without Gvardiol, Laimer and Olmo

Recently slightly injured: Josko Gvardiol (left).
imago/motivio

After a couple of days off, RB Leipzig kicked off the training week on Wednesday with a plenary session in front of around 250 spectators. Defender Josko Gvardiol, who missed Saturday’s match in Freiburg due to a muscle problem, only had a one-on-one session. The Croatian will be fit again for Sunday’s home game against Werder Bremen. Konrad Leimer didn’t train with the team either. The Austrian got a kick to the toe in Freiburg.

According to the club, Dani Olmo was absent for “private reasons”, which should not hold talks with another club. Sporting director Max Eberle has been negotiating a contract extension with the Spaniard for months.

After victories over SC Freiburg in the DFB Cup and in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig, third in the table, are back on track to score the minimum goal of qualifying for the Champions League. Defender Mehmet Semakan warned: “It was a good week, but in the end we didn’t achieve much. We really want to win on Sunday.” Because of the goal difference and the fact that rivals Union Berlin and Freiburg are fighting over each other on Saturday, two home wins against Werder and Schalke 04 will be enough to qualify for the Champions League. And in between, the RB will be a guest at Bayern Munich next Saturday.

Meanwhile, the club made its first decisions in planning for the new season. Contrary to the original idea, RB will not start a marketing trip to the US in the second half of July. Instead, coach Marco Rose and his team will move to a training camp in Bruneck / South Tyrol from July 20-28.