RB Leipzig is keeping up with the top spots in the Bundesliga – and is looking forward to an important comeback. VfL Wolfsburg cannot end its negative series.
RB Leipzig avoided another setback in the title race and prolonged VfL Wolfsburg’s earnings crisis.
Coach Marco Rose’s team came to a 3-0 (1-0) away win in the VW city after two games without a win in the Bundesliga. Emil Forsberg (14th minute), substitute Konrad Laimer (85th) and Dominik Szoboszlai (90th) scored for the significantly improved Leipzig team.
Wolfsburg, on the other hand, have been waiting for a win for five competitive games after their brilliant start to the year. The selection of head coach Niko Kovac threatens to lose touch with the Europa League places, Leipzig, on the other hand, is back in the top group. In addition to the hoped-for threesome, Christopher Nkunku’s long-awaited comeback created a great atmosphere among the guests from Saxony.
After a break of more than three months due to a torn lateral ligament, the 24-year-old attacker was substituted on in the 68th minute, which the RB fans and Gladbach’s 2-1 win against FC Bayern, which was shown in the meantime, acknowledged with plenty of applause.
With the expected return to the back four, Rose made a tactical change – which worked promptly. Both in the most recent 0-0 in Cologne and in the 1-2 defeat against Union Berlin a week ago, Leipzig tried a three-man chain. With a moderate yield. On this rainy and windy afternoon, the guests in front of 24,831 spectators in the arena on the Mittelland Canal gave little on the defensive and set offensive accents from the start.
These were rewarded after 15 minutes when the ball landed at Forsberg after a confusing situation and an unsuccessful VfL defense. The Swede’s powerful shot went into the goal from the inside of the post to take the lead. The guests, who wore black armbands in memory of the deceased former pole vaulter and their former athletic trainer Tim Lobinger, brought more creativity and lightness back into the game.
David Raum could have increased after a fine pass from Forsberg (39′) and Szoboszlai with a free kick (41′), but failed because of VfL goalkeeper Koen Casteels or the outside of the post. Kovac reacted to the mediocre performance of his eleven and brought in two fresh players after the change in Maxence Lacroix (for Paulo Otavio) and Omar Marmoush (for the ineffective Luca Waldschmidt). In the first half, Wolfsburg presented themselves as too harmless offensively and prone to making mistakes defensively.
“If you want to go up, you should win this game. If we want to stay where we are, we should win it too. Because the clubs are pushing from behind,” Kovac said before the game. After starting the year with six points and 11:0 goals, the Wolfsburg engine is now sputtering alarmingly.
The VfL game did liven up in the second half. But RB goalkeeper Janis Blaswich reacted strongly against Felix Nmecha (50′) and Micky van de Ven’s shot went wide of the target (65′). While Wolfsburg couldn’t find any means, Nkunku made his comeback on the other side and had a great chance to make it 2-0 for RB in the 81st minute. However, Laimer and Szoboszlai made the decision.
Source: Stern
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