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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

RB Leipzig scrap Celtic Park training session over mole fears

RB Leipzig opted against training at Celtic Park ahead of their Champions League tie in Glasgow - just days after Brendan Rodgers blasted a mole at Parkhead.

The Celtic boss had fumed over his line-up being leaked ahead of the Premier Sports Cup semi-final match against Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of European matches, it is customary for away clubs to train at the match venue on the evening before the match.

However, RB Leipzig opted against training in Glasgow with reports in Germany citing "Scottish spies" as a reason for dodging hosting a session at Celtic Park.

Instead, Leipzig boss Marco Rose completed a session with his players in Leipzig before jetting into Scotland in the evening. 

In previous trips to face Celtic, Rose has coached his side at Parkhead the evening before the match.

Newspaper Bild states: "The club has done everything to make this possible: yesterday's final training session was moved to Leipzig without further ado.

"Instead of taking place in Glasgow in the afternoon, it took place in the morning at the training center.

"There are the usual procedures. And no Scottish spies..."


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The Bundesliga club have also decided to stay outside of the main city centre in Glasgow to try and avoid disruption before the match.

Instead of remaining in Glasgow, RB Leipzig instead stayed at Cameron House on Loch Lomond.

Rodgers had taken aim at a Celtic mole at the weekend as he blasted "You're not a Celtic supporter."

"My thoughts are that it's clearly disappointing," Rodgers said of his team sheet being leaked against Dundee and Aberdeen. "I think it's something that we've seen before and it's not ideal.

"However, it comes out. It's a modern game, there are no real secrets in football. That's the reality of it. But it's not nice when it gets out there.

"Especially if it's out from Celtic supporters. Yeah, because it might feel great for someone's ego to put it out and pass it on to other people. I can tell you as a manager that I've had that before with other teams.

"When I got to know about it, it really, really helped me in my preparation. I've come up against a plan to play against a team. I was then told the day before the game that the team was going to play a different shape. I could then stick in an extra meeting that night at the hotel to say, this is what we think that team is going to do because we've had a message. And then, lo and behold, we go in the next day and the team is playing that shape. It really helped us to win the game in a good way.

"So whoever is putting it out, if it's someone from Celtic, you're not a Celtic supporter. You're not a Celtic supporter because you're not helping Celtic. It's as simple as that. If you're not a Celtic supporter, we will do everything we can to find out. But for me, I don't get angry about it.

"It's just something that it's the modern world now, isn't it? There's so much communication. There's so much out there."

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