"The key thing will be..."

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RB Leipzig

·13 March 2026

"The key thing will be..."

RB Leipzig will be hoping to take home three important points from Sunday's trip to VfB Stuttgart, with both sides competing for a spot in next season's Champions League. Ahead of the match, Ridle Baku spoke about the importance of the game, Stuttgart's attacking qualities and what the Red Bulls will need in order to win.

We're preparing for the first of two upcoming matches against sides also competing to qualify for the Champions League. Not only are we level on points with Stuttgart, but the match will also be played under the floodlights on Sunday night. How much are you and the team looking forward to this game and what are you expecting from it?

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"It's a real crunch match. We definitely want to win, even if we're away against Stuttgart, who have a really strong squad. But, in order to achieve our goals, we have to be capable of beating the top teams as well."

What do you think will be of particular importance on Sunday?

"We will need a top performance over the full 90 minutes. We simply need to leave it all out there on the pitch. If we do, then I think that we have the quality needed in order to win the game."

In particular, VfB's Deniz Undav is in excellent form at the minute and has already scored 15 goals this season. What makes him such a threat and how are you going to manage to keep him quiet this time around? You already did a good job of that in the meeting earlier this season.

"Stuttgart have a lot of quality in attack, whether that's Undav, Tomás, Demirovic, Führich or Leweling. But we also have good players, and no reason to lack confidence in ourselves. The key thing will be that we put in a top performance for the full 90 minutes, both in defence and in attack. The team that makes fewer mistakes, in addition to taking their chances, will be the one that wins the game."

Sunday's game will see several Germany internationals face off. Head coach Julian Nagelsmann will likely be keeping a close eye on the match, ahead of the upcoming international break. Is that something that's on your mind at all?

"There's a lot of quality on both sides. There will be several national team players involved. The national team head coach will likely be watching, in order to see which players are currently in good form. However, this game is a battle between us and a direct competitor for one of the European spots. We're level on points with them and, at this level, it's details that make the difference. We want to make sure that things go our way."

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