RB Leipzig head coach Domenico Tedesco has challenged his players to wary of Super Eagles midfielder Joe Aribo as they face Glasgow Rangers in the first leg, semi-final tie of the UEFA Europa League in Germany.
The Eagles midfielder has been Impressive for the Gers this season and he is among the reasons the Scottish League reigning champions are in the last four of Europe’s second-tier club competition.
Rangers and Leipzig will slug it out for a place in the final and Tedesco has told his players to learn from Borussia Dortmund and other teams that have fallen to the Scottish side.
“We know that Roofe will miss the game (but) they can play Aribo as a number ten. He is strong in the half-spaces,” Tedesco told the club’s official website. “They have strong players with a lot of speed. Any player that plays in the forward areas for them is strong.
“Rangers have a lot of quality in their ranks. Of course, there are a few question marks over the way they’ll line up because both of their regular forwards are unavailable.
“But in the last came, Joe Aribo did a great job and showed that they can always be dangerous. They bring a lot of speed in their game and dominate the half spaces just like a real top team.”
Yet Aribo said Rangers are confident of another Bundesliga scalp as he roared: ‘We can do this!’
He said: “The boys were buzzing when we played Dortmund because it’s such a big club.
“When we won that, it was like: ‘OK, we can keep going here; the favourites have been knocked out, so we can keep pushing.’
“And that’s what we’ve done. We can win playing against anyone.
“If we stick to our task then we can get the win. Dortmund and Leipzig being in the same league, it shows that we can do this.”
Aribo has played 51 games with eight goals and 10 assists including 12 games in the Europa League.