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Football

28th Oct 2020

Julian Nagelsmann jokes he’ll slide-tackle Solskjaer for ruining his childhood

RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann quipped that he would slide tackle Man United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to avenge his winning goal in the 1999

Reuben Pinder

Solskjaer scored a very important goal in 1999

Do you remember? If you’re old enough you probably will. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final for Manchester United against Bayern Munich. It was in the dying moments of stoppage time and completed an incredible treble for United. It’s also the main reason Solskjaer is Manchester United manager.

United come up against RB Leipzig on Wednesday evening in the second round of group games in the Champions League this season, and Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann has joked that he would like to slide tackle Solskjaer as revenge for ruining his childhood.

Nagelsmann was a 12-year-old Bayern Munich fan in 1999 and has said he was heartbroken to see Bayern lose that final at the Camp Nou.

“As soon as I see Solskjaer, I’m going to dive in for a sliding tackle,” Nagelsmann said.

“My dad was a Borussia Monchengladbach fan and he teased me a bit. He was happy Bayern didn’t win.

“I was not that happy.”

The 33 year old coach was more complimentary of the current United team, saying: “We know that they are very good and very tough to defeat, especially when you talk about the forwards or the offensive midfielders.

“They have a lot of qualities in the final third and we have to be aware of these situations. We have to close the space behind our defensive line.

“If we are very aggressive and we are watchful on these situations, then we are self-confident enough to talk about winning the game tomorrow [Wednesday].”

United go into the game against Leipzig having come away from Paris with three points the week before thanks to a late winner from Marcus Rashford MBE.

A 0-0 draw to Chelsea that bored everyone to tears at the weekend will have frustrated the Red Devils but they are slowly regaining momentum after a poor start to the season.