With Benjamin Henrichs not nominated for the 2022 World Cup, the football year ended a little earlier than one might have hoped. The RB Leipzig defender then watched the elimination of the German national team in front of television after the qualifying round. He has already met the best strikers in the world in his career, as he pointed out in an interview Youtube explained.
Messi “has cooled down a bit”
Both with RB Leipzig and at his last stop in France, he had one-on-one duels with world-class strikers. Lionel Messi, who has now been crowned world champion in Qatar, was probably his first-rate opponent. “I played against him last year. However, it was only eight minutes at right-back. Up until then he had already scored two goals and then relaxed a bit,” Henrichs said of the exceptional player .
Henrichs had seven duels with Kylian Mbappé
Find the defense against Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, who travel together with Messi at Paris St. Germain, the most uncomfortable. The Frenchman’s greatest strength is “just his speed. He comes at you and walks away, he’s incredibly fast.”
With the Brazilian, on the other hand, speed is underestimated, and Henrichs simply finds it even more difficult to calculate it. “Whether it’s left, right or through his legs, you never know what he’s going to do.” He often played against both during his time at AS Monaco, also against Mbappé at Bayer Leverkusen when the star player was still at Monaco. A total of seven times the two met.
‘Not disassembled’: Henrichs finds criticism of his performance against Madrid exaggerated
Another name that has stuck in public in relation to Henrichs: Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian ate it in the Champions League first leg. “Many people have asked me what he did to you, what happened? I see it a little differently,” Henrichs said of the duel before Valverde made it 1-0.
In the situation, the Real striker first wanted to pass him on the outside, but then cut him towards the inside and suddenly had a lot of space and time to be able to play the final pass. “I then accompanied him remotely,” says Henrichs. But it wasn’t very special. “He didn’t separate me or anything.”
