After two defeats in a row, everything should get better for RB Leipzig against Gladbach. But the Saxons found it difficult again. Only Bayern won at the top of the table on matchday 10.
RB Leipzig didn’t win for the third game in a row and is in a results crisis. The Saxons remain in second place in the Bundesliga thanks to the 0-0 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The gap to FC Bayern grew to five points.
The Munich team are the big winners of the tenth matchday anyway. In the afternoon, champions Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund had already failed to win away from home, while Vincent Kompany’s team won 1-0 at FC St. Pauli.
In front of 46,887 fans, Leipzig was once again far too harmless for long stretches, which gave coach Marco Rose an international break with a full homework book.
After the defeats in Dortmund and Glasgow, Rose had already used many tricks from the football teacher’s handbook. The RB coach gave speeches to the team, gave the professionals a day of rest to clear their heads, criticized publicly – and against Gladbach he chose a different basic formation. A three-man chain with the offensive focus on the left side, where the fine technician Antonio Nusa gave the rail player space instead of the rather robust and already long-injured David.
Gulacsi called for, Latte saved for Leipzig
But you only felt something like a feeling of optimism for a few minutes. Then, due to a high rate of missed passes, the Leipzig game reached a level of instability that led to increased harmlessness offensively. Gladbach liked that, the guests sensed that something was going on here today. “In the end, it’s important for us not to lose the game. Taking a point is good from our point of view, we are satisfied,” said national player Tim Kleindienst on Sky after the game.
Robin Hack approached the matter quite optimistically with an attempt from 40 meters, RB keeper Peter Gulacsi saved for a corner (9th). The duel Gulacsi vs. Gladbach had begun. Rocco Reitz came completely free to head the ball after a corner, Gulacsi parried again. After a good quarter of an hour, Leipzig also recorded their first goal, but Christoph Baumgartner’s intended shot slipped too far over his foot. Five minutes later, the rail experiment with Nusa worked for the first time. The Norwegian dribbled his way down the wing, but the cross was a little too high.
Gulacsi had long since reached operating temperature – and Gladbach kept him warm. Tim Kleindienst stole away after a cross from Willi Orban’s back and Gulacsi parried the shot from a few meters (22′). Two minutes later, the Hungarian international was there for a header from Marvin Friedrich. And when Gulacsi had no chance, the crossbar saved the game, like Franck Honorat’s shot (43′).
And Leipzig? Almost celebrated an own goal. Joe Scally slotted in a pass from Nusa into the penalty area, Gladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas was already heading in the other direction. But the ball rolled past the far post (36′). Shortly before the break, Baumgartner tested Nicolas’ qualities with a header after a corner, but the Gladbacher was in no way inferior to Gulacsi. Interesting goal scoring statistics at half time: 11:3 – for Gladbach.
The five-time German champion arrived with self-confidence after a 4-1 win against Bremen. Gladbach felt the desire to win the game much more than the Saxons.
At least they came out of the break a little more aggressive and fought for a number of corners. It wasn’t really dangerous. But Leipzig now had the upper hand and had a huge chance to take the lead through Baumgartner, but Nicolas saved with a strong reflex (64th). Rose added Benjamin Sesko and Amadou Haidara. Gladbach, on the other hand, seemed tired and limited their attack to isolated counterattacks.
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