Harder and Baumgartner confront each other
It didn’t look like such a clear affair in the first half. Harder took advantage of a rather indecisive run out by Eintracht keeper Zetterer to make it 1-0 (5th). But Frankfurt played along cheerfully and even seemed more agile and dangerous at times. However, many attacks were not successful. Batshuayi stumbled over the ball while standing 2 m in front of the goal (21′), and Dahoud’s long-range shot from 20 m only hit the crossbar (31′). RB was much more efficient and countered coldly immediately after Frankfurt’s aluminum goal to make it 2-0 (31st). Harder had served Baumgart with a cross pass from the baseline, essentially returning the favor for the assist to make it 1-0. In any case, the score at half-time was somewhat misleading about how the game was going.
Diomande with a three-pack
After the break, things got really tough for the Hessians, because RB now really turned up the heat, pressed hard, switched quickly and was now much quicker to act. Like in the 3-0 game, when Antonio Nusa, who had possibly fallen for a penalty, set up for Diomande while he was still lying down (47′) and Frankfurt pulled the plug. At 4-0, the Frankfurt team watched spellbound as Diomande shot in from 17 m (55′). Raum’s penalty goal was based on a shot from Xaver Schlager at Kristensen’s hand (62′). And in the end, Diomande, who quickly went into the depths, scored his hat-trick (65th). Things could have been even worse for Eintracht if Baumgartner hadn’t been a centimeter offside in his (supposed) 3-0 (39′) or if Nusa hadn’t hit the far post from 17 meters (51′). But even so, it was a special evening for RB Leipzig.
Coach voices
Dino Toppmöller (Frankfurt): “Congratulations to Ole and Leipzig for the deserved victory because of our desolate second half. That’s fine even at the height. But it didn’t feel like that in the first half because we had a good start. When it was 1-0 out of nowhere, we helped a lot with an individual mistake. Then we had a huge chance at the second post, hit the crossbar a few minutes later, and then the post went “It’s happened too often that we have the opportunity to draw a foul, to stop an attack – we have to be more mature and dirty. Not that you kick the player out of his shoes, but then you go into half-time with a score of 0-2, and then it’s a really bad performance from us, for which we apologize to the fans who traveled with us.”
Ole Werner (Leipzig): “Thank you very much for the congratulations, Dino. I saw the game exactly that way. In the first half you could see how close things are sometimes in football. It was important for us that we came out of halftime well and more or less decided the game with the third goal. We were incredibly sharp today, very disciplined, defending together. We also made good use of the transition moments. A great performance by the team.”
