29th matchday
RB Leipzig remains on course for the premier class
Dani Olmo and RB Leipzig scored an important three points in the fight for Champions League qualification. photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
The Spaniard Olmo is once again a guarantee of victory at RB Leipzig. He and the strikers Sesko and Openda spoil the return of former coach Hasenhüttl.
This means that RB remains in fourth place in the Bundesliga table, level on points with Dortmund. Dani Olmo took the lead after 13 minutes in front of 45,858 spectators. Benjamin Sesko (68th) and Lois Openda (82nd) increased.
Head coach Marco Rose compensated for the loss of the suspended national player David Raum without much rotation, simply placing Benjamin Henrichs on the left side. Mohamed Simakan moved into the starting line-up and took over the right side for Henrichs. The guests, however, are different. Leipzig’s former coach Hasenhüttl made five changes. The Lower Saxony team under their predecessor Niko Kovac had won both games against Leipzig this season, first in the second round of the DFB Cup (1-0) and then in the first leg of the league (2-1).
The guests had the first chance of the game, but Yannick Gerhardt’s shot (5th) was no problem for RB goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. On the other side, Sesko (6th) also tried from the edge of the penalty area – but missed slightly. The Spanish high-end technician Olmo did it better. After a pass from ex-Wolfsburg Xaver Schlager, he turned around his own axis and opponent Cédric Zesiger and shot the ball from a good 20 meters into the bottom left corner to take the lead.
After that, both teams neutralized each other somewhat in midfield. After winning the ball, Olmo passed to Sesko, who was standing free in the middle (33′), but the ball bounced too far from the Slovenian’s foot. After that, Leipzig took over more and more of the game, Wolfsburg was completely at the back. Kevin Behrens had the best chance to equalize in stoppage time in the first half, but he couldn’t finish properly under pressure, then the ball went to Kilian Fischer, whose ball went over the goal. In return, Simakan headed the ball just wide of the goal.
Wolfsburg becomes more offensive, RB counters
After the substitution, VfL keeper Pavao Pervan prevented the Saxons from making it 2-0 when he was able to fend off a cross to Olmo. Hasenhüttl then made a change early on and wanted to set new trends with Lovro Majer and Matthias Svanberg. That worked at first. After an attempt to clear the ball, Svanberg took the ball with his chest and shot from 24 meters – Gulacsi made a brilliant save.
Suddenly Wolfsburg were there. But RB countered perfectly in their own stadium. Sesko (68th) took the ball from Arnold at the back, played it to Xavi Simons, who passed the ball to him steeply, Sesko loaded the defenders again and pushed in to make it 2-0. Then Henrichs (78th) missed a header from close range after Pervan was initially able to parry against Simakan. Openda (82nd), who scored his 22nd goal of the season, further increased the result. Like Olmo, he turned around opponent Sebastiaan Bornouw on the edge of the penalty area and finished skillfully.