There was a scene on Saturday in which a lot came together that defines the presence of RB Leipzig and Borussia Mönchengladbach; and it happened when the game was a good fifty-one minutes old.
Gladbach’s goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who is so confident with the ball on his foot that he was once traded as a candidate for FC Barcelona (and showed various good saves on Saturday), played the ball in the foot of RB striker Christopher Nkunku, who played around the summer rushed far out of his goal and served André Silva as generously as it was perfect. The Portuguese had a lot of time and only the empty gate in front of him. But the attacker put the ball exactly on the crossbar from 15 meters.
One could read the uncertainty of the Gladbachers as well as the relentless hunger of the Leipzigers. But also that the Leipzigers are still missing a few percentage points for perfection. When you looked at the stands, you saw various players absent due to injuries at temperatures that were just below freezing, among them Yussuf Poulsen – and they laughed hard. Because they knew that Silva’s unbelievable miss (“That can happen. But that shouldn’t happen,” he said himself) would not conjure up any drama, and not only because Leipzig already scored 2 with goals from Josko Gvardiol and Silva: 0 led.
Leipzig misses many chances to increase the result early on
The privileged spectators in the otherwise empty stadium should be right. The Borussia came in the 88th minute through Rami Bensebaini to the connection goal. But in stoppage time, Nkunku (90 + 2) and Benjamin Henrichs (90 + 4) met with lightning-fast counterattacks – and at the debut of their new coach Domenico Tedesco, 36, they made the absolutely appropriate 4: 1 final score. “I’m happy for our new trainer,” said Leipzig’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, drawing on the leave of absence for his previous dream solution, Jesse Marsch, which was decided on Sunday: “Today it feels like it was the right decision. “
That was also because the team’s joy in playing contributed to the fact that Gladbach now had to assess “the third big defeat” one after the other, as coach Adi Hütter called it. His team has now conceded 14 goals in three games, five of which were based on standards. “It’s absolutely crazy,” said goalkeeper Sommer. It was no consolation to him that there could have been many more goals conceded. “We had four or five chances to make it 3-0,” complained Tedesco, who didn’t change that much compared to the last game, but followed the impressions the team gave him: “Basically it is so that the team longs for possession of the ball. “
The effect: There wasn’t much missing, and the Gladbachers would have gotten into a vortex similar to that on the previous Sunday against Freiburg. At the time, they were 6-0 down by the 37th minute. On the other hand, they held out against Leipzig for a comparatively long time, because Konrad Laimer (7th), André Silva (10th) and Christopher Nkunku (19th) spurned fantastic opportunities to shoot.
Had to look behind him a few times – and grab: Gladbach’s goalkeeper Yann Sommer (center) contradicts the assumption that there could be a lack of solidarity: “I won’t let myself be persuaded that we’re not a team.”
(Photo: Michael Taeger / Jan Huebner / imago)
But then the great central defender Josko Gvardiol, who headed a free-kick flank from Angelino from six meters into the net (24th), and crossbar specialist Silva, after Christopher Nkunku carefully let a cross from left defender Angelino through his legs (32nd) . Leipzig still had chances after that. And although Gladbach’s performance after the break was “at least okay in terms of the effort and holding back,” as captain Lars Stindl said, it was a bit of a surprise that the goal was scored. Not, however, that Leipzig made two final chords that put coach Hütter to shame: “It just doesn’t work from the back.”
“Everyone has made something for themselves,” says captain Lars Stindl
Why is that? Good question. Captain Lars Stindl definitely raised the question of internal cohesion, and that had every logic, because Mönchengladbach was again the opposite of compactness on Saturday. “Everyone did something for themselves and not together as a team,” said Stindl. Goalkeeper Sommer disagreed: “I won’t let myself be persuaded that we’re not a team.” However, the Swiss criticized the lack of aggressiveness in the duels with the opponent: “You can’t win a game like this,” he annoyed. And such remarks are usually a sign that a team is seriously worried about the future.
Coach Hütter didn’t want to go that far. “There is already some uncertainty,” he conceded. But: “I wouldn’t speak of a dangerous situation because the team is also of too much quality.” There is no other way to put it, manager Max Eberl built a squad for him that, in theory, has nothing to do with the current reality. While Leipzig caught up to the European places, Hutter’s team is only two points ahead of the relegation place. On Wednesday the Borussia Hütters ex-team, Eintracht Frankfurt, welcomed them, which is not exactly easy fare. Nevertheless, Hütter was combative: “We brought ourselves in, we fight our way out again together.”