"A real wake-up call" – RB Leipzig boss responds after shock defeat to Werder Bremen

After RB Leipzig opened their Bundesliga campaign with a 3–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, Martin Demichelis’ side were brought back down to earth with a surprise 3–1 defeat to Werder Bremen on Saturday.

RB Leipzig managing director for sport Marcel Schäfer described the defeat as a “real wake-up call” ahead of the club’s Champions League opener against Como on Thursday.

“It was a real wake-up call – perhaps at the right time as well. We’ve already got another important game on Thursday, so we can’t afford to dwell on this for long. At the same time, given the standards we set ourselves, we can’t simply brush this performance aside. We have to learn the right lessons from it and produce a response," Schäfer said in a post-match interview.

Leipzig were without key players such as Castello Lukeba and Brajan Gruda, but Schäfer refused to use their absences as an excuse.

“We fell well short in a lot of areas. The players we were missing are no excuse for that. We still had enough players on the pitch who have already shown what they can do at both club and international level. I therefore expected a very different performance," he said.

“We moved the ball too slowly and didn’t get our wide players into the one-v-one situations where they can make a difference. We also didn’t get enough bodies into the box. Having lots of possession, corners and crosses is all well and good, but what matters is what you make of them. We didn’t find enough ways to break down a side defending very deep.”