UImpressed by the end of the World Cup for national striker Timo Werner and the announced farewell to boss Oliver Mintzlaff, RB Leipzig continues to play football successfully. Three days after reaching the round of 16 in the Champions League, the strong Saxons won the Bundesliga 3-1 (1-0) at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday.
Christopher Nkunku with his tenth and eleventh goal of the season (17th and 57th minute) and Dani Olmo (69th) scored for coach Marco Rose’s team. In between, Nkunku’s French compatriot Georginio Rutter surprisingly equalized (50th).
“It’s just fun to watch Christopher,” said RB goalkeeper Janis Blaswich: “But I don’t want to lift him out, the others are too strong for that.” The 31-year-old also wanted to forget Werner after the first away win of the season not: “It is certainly not an easy situation for Timo, we stand together and support him.”
Prömel probably badly injured
In front of 23,127 spectators in Sinsheim, Hoffenheim’s World Cup candidate Grischa Prömel had to be carried off the field seriously injured after less than 15 minutes. The 27-year-old midfielder himself made a gesture that something was torn or broken in his ankle, later his coach André Breitenreiter confirmed the suspicion of an ankle fracture. “It’s a very sad day for us.”
The all-round convincing RB team is now undefeated in eleven games in all competitions. With a directly converted free kick immediately after the Prömel-Aus, Nkunku duped Hoffenheim’s keeper Oliver Baumann. The alleged 2-0 by Olmo after a strong combination was then reversed by referee Martin Petersen from Stuttgart after a VAR decision because Nkunku was narrowly offside (31 ‘).
The Spaniard Olmo stood in for Timo Werner (ruptured syndesmosis ligament), who was missing at the World Cup, alongside Nkunku and André Silva in the RB attack, which repeatedly hit the Kraichgauers powerfully. Mintzlaff observed the performance of the guest team from the arena’s stands: On Friday it was announced that the managing director was leaving the DFB Cup winner and moving to the Red Bull group on November 15. After the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz on October 22, the 47-year-old will become one of three new managing directors at the beverage company. RB Leipzig does not necessarily want to sign a direct successor. “We’re now thinking about whether we’ll get another CEO or whether we’ll put even more trust in the current management,” Mintzlaff said on Sky.
Andrej Kramaric, who recently struggled with ankle problems, came on for the injured Prömel at TSG. But the Croatian Vice World Champion from 2018 also found it difficult against the powerful and powerful Saxons. Leipzig loan Angeliño repeatedly tried to boost Hoffenheim’s offensive on the left flank, but initially came through less often than his counterpart David Raum, who left Hoffenheim for Leipzig in the summer.
A cross from Angeliño led to the equalizer shortly after the break: the RB back team had lost sight of Rutter, who headed the ball into the net. The Leipzig team then picked up the pace again: Baumann was able to fend off the ball twice for the winning goal, but Nkunku then resolutely threw it into the goal and was celebrated by the 500 RB fans who had traveled with them in the guest corner. With a solid right-footed shot into the goal corner, Olmo increased the lead to 3:1 on preparatory work by Dominik Szoboszlai, who also played well.
