It must have been sweet, even if he hid it well; 114 days after his exit from Borussia Dortmund, Marco Rose was back in the coaching saddle with RB Leipzig – for an immediate confrontation with his former employers. If there was a mildly awkward touchline embrace with his predecessor, and successor, Edin Terzić, before kick-off, the rest of Saturday afternoon couldn’t have been smoother for Rose.
After a torrid start to the season, with successive four-goal beatings by Eintracht Frankfurt and Shakhtar Donetsk drawing the curtains on the Domenico Tedesco era, Leipzig cruised to a 3-0 win, giving Rose the perfect debut on the bench. He wouldn’t be lured into discussing any lingering animosity, insisting there was none (“I made some great friends there”) despite the relatively short time since the split. “In the end,” he told Sky, “it didn’t fit together any more, and I had to go. But life goes on.”
