Football victory in Bern
Leipzig celebrates the perfect start to the Champions League
Status: 19.09.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Xaver Schlager (r.) and Lois Openda celebrate Leipzig’s victory at Young Boys Bern
Which: AFP/FABRICE COFFRINI
RasenBallsport Leipzig deservedly won at Young Boys Bern and started the Champions League season with an important away win. Marco Rose’s team inflicts their first home defeat on the Swiss in a year.
Dream start, disillusionment – and then redemption: Xaver Schlager and Benjamin Sesko gave RB Leipzig a successful start to the Champions League despite a mysterious drop in performance. The Austrian (73rd minute) turned things around in the 3-1 (1-1) win at outsiders Young Boys Bern, Benjamin Sesko (90th + 3) scored the late winning goal. Mohamed Simakan (3rd) had previously given the Saxons a perfect start. But in the sold-out Wankdorf Stadium, Meschack Elia (33′) equalized. Thanks to the victory on artificial turf, Leipzig is now not under as much pressure on matchday two against defending champions Manchester City as if they had lost a point.
“It was the difficult game we expected. Here you first have to insist on the mood. After taking the lead, we managed too much and became too passive,” commented coach Marco Rose. At halftime the players spoke to each other and Leipzig found their way back to their game. “I thought it was good that the boys were mad at themselves. “But it wasn’t super loud,” Rose reported.
The Leipzig team started as if they could hardly wait to finally compete in the premier class again. After just over 30 seconds, Loïs Openda had the first good chance, but his shot went into the side netting. Just two minutes later, after a corner from David Raum, Simakan headed the ball into the near corner. Bern’s goalkeeper Anthony Racioppi looked anything but good.
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So everything actually went according to plan for the guests. Actually – because after the clear playful dominance at the start of the game, the Leipzig team suddenly stopped. Instead of continuing to combine quickly forward, almost only long balls followed. All precision was lost when switching. Elia scored with a pike into the far corner for the ever-improving Swiss.
After the break, Leipzig turns things up again
Due to RB’s mysterious break-in, the stadium also became increasingly loud. Former Bundesliga professional Raphael Wicky led Bern to championship and cup victory last summer – the spectators were correspondingly enthusiastic about the club’s third participation in the group phase of the Champions League. In this phase, the game was played almost exclusively in half of the increasingly passive Leipzig team.
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Why RB dismantled in such a way was probably a mystery, and not just to Rose. Even after the break, there was hardly anything from his team at first. The only hope for a turnaround was a controversial scene in the hosts’ penalty area. A few minutes after the break, Xavi Simons fell after a challenge with Racioppi, but the referee initially decided to continue play. Then he looked at the scene on the screen: Because Xavi had actively sought contact with the goalkeeper’s foot, there was no penalty.
Nevertheless, the Bundesliga team got back into the game better after that, also because Bern was apparently running out of steam. Schlager took advantage of the Swiss’ increasing passivity and shot into the far corner from a good 18 meters. Leipzig now dominated the game, which at least helped Timo Werner make a short appearance. The out-of-form national striker came into the game for Openda in the 88th minute. Shortly afterwards, Sesko made the final score.
