The starting position of this game in Leipzig was one that no one would have expected a few years ago, yes, on which no one in the country’s betting shops would have put a single old button, even if it had been one of the unloved aunt’s coat, a Heirloom. The starting position of this game was on the one hand an interesting table constellation of the two opponents (one point distance before the top game) – as well as their respective luxury tiredness. A few days before the direct duel in the league, both Leipzig and Frankfurt had to play first legs in the round of 16 in the Champions League.
As similar as the run-up to this game was for both teams in what was once called the “Concert of the Greats”, they then acted so differently, especially in the first half. The course is told much faster from Frankfurt’s point of view, which largely awaited and weakened the first half rather than designing it. Apart from an occasional solo for Kolo, surname Muani, Eintracht hardly brought anything onto the pitch. This Muani, however, who had seen red against Naples during the week, was first alone in attack and secondly did not find one there in Joško Gvardiol hidden Champion of this game, a new-school destroyer that meant Muani elegantly and quietly, almost empathetically, so to speak, but not lacking in clarity: Here, my friend, is Ende Gelände. Conclusion at least from Frankfurt’s point of view: There are such games and game halves – unfavorable if you happen to be in Leipzig.
Because RB started with initially difficult weather conditions (light pyrone fog with visibility below 50 pass meters) in a way that the former Leipzig and current sports director of Eintracht, Markus Krösche, appreciated after the game as “sharp”. Also stimulated by the game intelligence of Yussuf Poulsen, who has been back for a long time, RB went to work with a 2-4-4 formation when in possession of the ball, from which such enormous pressure developed that he scored the 1st goal in the 7th minute :0 led. Emil Forsberg, who was always present, exacerbated the ball loss from Frankfurt’s Tuta to an assist that Timo Werner, no, did not stumble, but into the goal.
Timo Werner makes it 1-0, makes it 2-0 and then thanks his coach for the occasional kick in the butt
“Pain, cold, everything,” Werner dismissed initial questions after the game, but then went on record: it was nice. “Absolute dream goal,” he said, and then, more seriously, Werner thanked his coach, Marco Rose, who was both fully behind him and – apparently from there because he was in a good position – occasionally kicking his butt. “If he perceives it that way, then it will be like that and then he can have it like that,” said Rose and also that Werner played well this week, which was also worth mentioning in that Werner was actually already at 1-1 made a more valuable contribution against Manchester City than the statistics alone would have suggested.
Speaking of which, “sometimes statistics help to explain a game,” said Rose after the 2-1 (2-0), meaning two things. On the one hand, that according to the prevailing opinion, his team and also that of guest coach Oliver Glasner deserved to win – on the other hand, that it was a tight game due to the second half and all possible game statistics.
To win this tight game, Leipzig needed the second goal just before the break. Again, Forsberg initiated, this time via Dominik Szoboszlai, who gained both time and passing options in a slightly elliptical run to serve the smart-starting Timo Werner. Again, as an interested spectator, one could ask oneself at this point why Frankfurt gave so much space to Werner in particular. To the surprise of some, this Werner did not score himself coming from the left, but brought the ball as a prophet of a wonderfully played goal to Forsberg, who was at the second post – that’s always so easy to write, but that’s exactly how it looked in this case – pushed in effortlessly (40th).
The Sow moment: Frankfurt’s Djibril Sow heaves the ball into the net to score. But it is not enough for Eintracht anymore.
(Photo: Martin Rose/Getty)
Snow set in during the break and after the snow came Sow, first name Djibril. After a Frankfurt cross into the backcourt, Sow thundered the ball into the net (61′) in a way that made the word “full span” appear too small and tender and in any case not adequate. This seemed to be a start, an idea of how this game, which had been clear for a long time, could still tip over, at least to a draw. Glasner acknowledged this second half afterwards, he spoke of “phases in which we can keep up well” – there were such against Naples and now also against Leipzig, and although such “taker qualities” of his team impressed him again and again In the end, they didn’t do enough against opponents like the two mentioned: “If we don’t play at our upper level for the whole 90 minutes, then it’s not enough against a team like Leipzig.” When he recognizes something like that, says Glasner, “then it boils inside me”, bubbling in the sense of: work on it as quickly as possible, “roll up my sleeves”.
As against Manchester City, RB coach Rose counteracts the opponent’s strengthening with clever changes
It wasn’t enough for Frankfurt against Leipzig either, because Marco Rose reacted to the opponent’s strengthening with clever changes, as he did against Manchester City. In this case, he first brought in the long-missing Christopher Nkunku, whose warm-up headgear had given the extremely false impression that he, Nkunku, would have to drive south of town that evening to sit in a letter beginning with a “C” and ending in “onnewitz ” to train his throwing arm in the district that ends. Instead, with a few runs and a few passes, Nkunku provided some of the turmoil that helped disrupt Frankfurt’s game – and which really only came about when Rose made three changes at once, creating a moment when the stadium announcement again sounded like the lottery numbers being drawn.
In this turmoil, Frankfurt lost a bit of the thread it had just picked up – and Leipzig stabilized in a way that soon made 3-1 more likely than 2-2 again, and it stabilized with an excellent interlocking offensive, with Konrad as its driving force Laimer was conspicuous, but it was just one of many.
The two coaches didn’t want to overestimate the result, as the saying goes – and took something away from this Saturday in different ways. Glasner didn’t want to accept the excuse that Naples could have hung deeper in Frankfurt than Manchester Leipzig: “If you look for the cause elsewhere, you won’t be able to change it … the preparation was good, the food wasn’t spoiled either .”
Marco Rose, on the other hand, who sometimes smiles so gently on the sidelines as if he were a tutor on a school trip, who really can’t be bothered by anything, this Marco Rose now didn’t want to lose himself in merriment after the game. Sure, it’s “important for us that we don’t win somehow” but deserve it. But, Rose said, looking at nothing other than the game at his former employer in Dortmund next Friday: “Wins oblige to do more.”