What Marc Roca did in his first game vs Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch that resulted in early bath - YEP 18/6/22


New Leeds United signing Marc Roca and Whites manager Jesse Marsch have met before, a long way from West Yorkshire.

By Flora Snelson

On a cold Wednesday night in Bavaria, the Spaniard took to the field at the Allianz Arena to make his Champions League debut on the eve of his 25th birthday in November 2020.

Six weeks previously, Roca had signed on the dotted line to become a Bayern Munich player, bringing to an end his 12-year spell at the club where his career began, Espanyol.

The midfielder only had to wait 11 days for his Bundesliga debut, replacing Serge Gnabry in injury-time to help close out Die Roten's 2-1 win over FC Köln.

After his one-minute cameo, Roca remained on the bench until the following month, when RB Salzburg were in town to battle out a Group A fixture against the Champions League holders.

Salzburg boss Marsch watched on as Roca lined up against Rasmus Kristensen for kick-off at the Allianz Arena.

The relative newcomer did all the right things as Bayern defended their 100% Group A win rate, taking a shot and sending Robert Lewandowski through on goal before the Pole was adjudged offside.

At the break, Lewandowski had given the hosts the lead and Hansi Flick's side were in the driving seat - but things started to go wrong for Roca early in the second half.

A poorly-judged challenge on Zlatko Junuzović in the 48th minute gave referee Orel Grinfeld no choice but to put Roca's name in the book after the Spaniard's late attempt on the ball resulted in a stamp on the Salzburg midfielder's foot.

Just twelve minutes later, Junuzović spelled trouble for Roca again - with Salzburg on the break, the pair were racing each other toward a loose ball; the Austrian won the chase and knocked the ball out of Roca's path, only for the Bayern man to send him flying to the ground just paces away from Grinfeld.

Roca reacted immediately to the referee's whistle, turning away from the cards with his head in his hands. To make matters worse, Roca's second yellow came moments after Flick made a double change, bringing off Gnabry and Benjamin Pavard, meaning his hands were a little tied with regard to a reshuffle.

The dismissal took the shine off what would otherwise have been a commendable debut - Roca finished the game with a 95% passing rate, the best of the starting XI according to WhoScored.

Fortunately for Roca, playing nearly half an hour of the tie with ten men didn't prevent Bayern from booking a place in the next round of the contest with a 3-1 win.

"Our main aim today was to reach the last 16," the Die Roten boss Flick told Sky Sports.

"We made things very hard in the first half because we gave the ball away too easily. We were sloppy and not focused; we need to do better and be ready for opponents to make things difficult for us.

"But I'm happy. we've played four and won four."

Sazlburg's loss, meanwhile, left Marsch's side five points adrift of second-placed Atlético Madrid with just two Group A games left to play.

"It’s a pity, I am disappointed," Marsch said.

"We gave a good performance in both games [against Bayern], but we conceded way too many goals.

"The lads have done a good job, we had our opportunities.

"We are still alive, we have to stay strong."

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