Marco Rose, still out of breath, high-fived his defeated colleague Edin Terzic after a sprint over half the place. The players from the victorious defending champion RB Leipzig were celebrated by the fans in the Red Bull Arena, the guests from Borussia Dortmund struggled with themselves after the second serious setback within a few days.
Four days after falling from the top of the table in the Bundesliga, BVB was also eliminated from the DFB Cup with a 0-2 (0-1) loss in Leipzig. “It was just a shitty evening,” said coach Terzic on Sky.
“Leipzig ate us up in the first half,” said BVB captain Marco Reus. He was disappointed with his own performance. “About your own inability. We didn’t deserve to win the game today,” emphasized national player Julian Brandt: “We were extremely lucky today that we even survived the first ten minutes by conceding a goal.”
While Leipzig overcame its own crisis after the last three defeats, BVB coach Terzic, who won the title against RB in 2021, suffered his first defeat in the cup. Now the 40-year-old can concentrate fully on the championship, which BVB has not yet written off despite the recent defeat against Bayern Munich.
In front of 47,069 fans, Timo Werner (22nd minute) used one of Leipzig’s many chances to take the lead. Up until then, BVB had been completely off the mark, Mats Hummels, who had started for the injured national player Nico Schlotterbeck, was unlucky when conceding a goal. Willi Orban scored the second goal in the eighth minute of added time – and forced his coach Rose to celebrate with a memorable sprint.
The victory against his former employer has given Leipzig’s coach a few quieter days than last. Not only had his team lost three times in a row, they hadn’t scored a goal either. Leipzig is still convinced of the coach and wants to renew the contract that runs until 2024. “We want to extend with Marko, that’s clear,” said sports director Max Eberl on ZDF before kick-off.
Unleashed first half for Leipzig
The first half proved that Rose can set the team up correctly for such a top game. Leipzig played like unleashed, producing a number of great chances. Konrad Laimer should have scored after just three minutes after a Werner discard with a hoe, a flutter ball from Dani Olmo (6th) was saved by BVB keeper Gregor Kobel.
Six minutes later the goalkeeper was just there with his toe and defused another attempt by Olmo. The Spanish playmaker was back in the starting XI for the first time since late January through injury and put on a hugely inspiring performance.
A goal for Leipzig was only a matter of time – and after a little more than 20 minutes it fell. Central defender Mohamed Simakan ventured to the other side of the pitch, making Hummels look massively bad and passing flat in the middle to Werner.
The tactical switch from Rose to a three-man chain, which is actually not that popular with the players, worked out completely. Mentally, Leipzig were fully focused, aware of every situation and greedy for the ball.
BVB got nothing on the line
And BVB? Apparently still hampered by the 2:4 in Munich, the team couldn’t get anything going offensively. The team sometimes had problems playing the ball out of their own half without an accident.
This led to numerous switching opportunities for Leipzig. Werner missed another big chance (39′) when he ran towards Kobel alone, but put the ball inaccurately across to Laimer.
Terzic reacted during the break, switched to two strikers and also a back three. Youssoufa Moukoko joined the previously invisible Donyell Malen, national player Marius Wolf had to go down. Emre Can moved back into the defensive line from midfield.
Two almost identical formations initially led to both teams neutralizing each other. However, BVB was now much better into the game and gave Leipzig a few brain teasers.
After a good hour, Terzic brought in his midfield star Jude Bellingham, who had been rotated out of the starting XI after the stresses of the past few weeks. However, Leipzig had the next big chance, Laimer (78th) appeared completely free in front of Kobel, the BVB goalkeeper parried once more.
Up front, BVB was still acutely lacking in goal danger. Up until the 80th minute, Dortmund didn’t have a single shot on goal in their statistics. At Leipzig it was nine until then, before it got really turbulent again in the added minutes.
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