30th matchday
Nkunku keeps RB Leipzig in the race for the premier class
Christopher Nkunku initiated Leipzig’s win against Hoffenheim. photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
RB Leipzig has positioned itself before the Freiburg week. With a win against Hoffenheim everything is still possible in the direction of Champions League places – thanks to Nkunku.
Just in time for the end of the season, Christopher Nkunku makes the difference again. The Frenchman crowned his comeback in the starting eleven at RB Leipzig with the winning goal in the 28th minute in the 1-0 (1-0) in the Bundesliga against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
Marco Rose’s team is still in a good starting position in the fight for the Champions League and can defeat their direct opponent SC Freiburg themselves next Saturday. For Hoffenheim it was another setback in the fight to stay up. TSG is only one point away from the relegation place.
Nkunku crowned starting XI comeback
Nkunku’s comeback in the starting XI in front of 45,294 spectators after more than two months could have been crowned after 91 seconds. First the lively Frenchman let Ozan Kabak out, but then failed with his weaker left foot by goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and Kabak, who threw himself in between. As with the goalless RB appearance in Leverkusen (0: 2), the Saxons made a mistake in front of the goal with the best opportunities. First Nkunku (7th) couldn’t accommodate a cross pass from Werner, then Konrad Laimer found his master with his 17-meter shot in Baumann. Then Werner (15th) twisted free-standing from eleven meters after a bad pass from Dennis Geiger.
After a counterattack, ex-Hoffenheimer David Raum (26th) was able to try to finish after a dream pass from Mohamed Simakan, but he missed the direct shot. Nkunku did better (28′): In cooperation with Emil Forsberg, he scored the lead and pulled a red balloon out of the socket for his son, blew it up and enjoyed his first goal of the year. It was the 13th goal of the season. The Footballer of the Year scored his last goal on November 9, 2022 in a 3-1 win against Freiburg.
Silva failed on the crossbar
A good omen for RB, because in the coming week there will be two away duels at SC Freiburg within five days – first on Tuesday in the cup semi-finals, then in the league on Saturday in the fight for the top class places.
The despondent Hoffenheim team, who recently clinched three wins and ten points from five games under Pellegrino Matarazzo, only had their first real chance to score in the 38th minute. Christoph Baumgartner failed because of the brilliantly parrying RB keeper Janis Blaswich.
After the change, Hoffenheim came out of the cabin with more momentum, and RB had the better chances again. So Simakan (59th) only hit the side netting from a tight angle. After an hour, Rose brought in Dani Olmo, who was recently unable to train after a knee kick. Matarazzo tried it with returnee Grischa Prömel, who broke his ankle in the 3-1 draw against Leipzig in November. Suddenly the SG game had more structure and offensive drive. RB took advantage of this with a quick switching game. Substitute André Silva (73rd) failed with the best chance with a crossbar hit.