Three points for the round of 16 dream, but big worries about captain Peter Gulacsi: DFB Cup winner RB Leipzig has maintained its Champions League ambitions with a courageous performance, but may have to pay dearly for the win.
The zero-point starters managed the redeeming blow in the third group game by beating Celtic Glasgow 3-1 (1-0), but lost their regular keeper Gulacsi, who apparently had a knee injury.
Before the eyes of national coach Hansi Flick, coach Marco Rose’s team pushed past the Scottish champions to third place and kept their chances for the knockout round before the second leg on Tuesday (9 p.m. / DAZN). Attacking star Christopher Nkunku (27th), who is said to have already signed for Chelsea, and double packer Andre Silva (64th/77th) scored for Leipzig, the Portuguese Jota (47th) had equalized in the meantime.
After the false start with bankruptcies against Shakhtar Donetsk (1: 4) and Real Madrid (0: 2), Rose recognized the seriousness of the situation. “If we don’t get any points, it will be very difficult,” he said. His impression of the 52-time Scottish champion, whom he had attested to as “very active” football, was initially not confirmed: RB appeared twice dangerously in front of the goal within the first two minutes.
When Celtic got better, the Gulacsi accident happened: First, the Hungarian made a careless mistake in the build-up play, as he did against Donetsk, then he buckled his right leg. Gulacsi remained lying, apparently with a serious knee injury, and clasped his hands in front of his head. After minutes of treatment, the captain left the field on a stretcher, replaced by Janis Blaswich.
RB recovered quickly from the shock – and almost scored a goal worth seeing: Nkunku converted a fine pass from Mohamed Simakan with a sensitive lob, but was just offside beforehand (18′). Six minutes later, Blaswich parried a header from Kyogo Furuhashi, shortly afterwards the Japanese just missed the lead again after losing the ball to RB.
Instead, RB struck in the style of a guest team: Xaver Schlager captured the ball after a corner by pressing, Andre Silva pushed through to Nkunku and he completed the counterattack from an acute angle to make it 1-0. Even after that, the game remained entertaining, the hosts repeatedly countered dangerously.
Celtic came out of the dressing room furiously – and were quickly rewarded: After Timo Werner lost the ball, Furuhashi immediately passed it on to Jota, who pushed in effortlessly. RB reacted angrily and ran, Dominik Szoboszlai hit the post (57th).
Four minutes later he flicked the ball into the net from 20 yards out, but referee Espen Eskas canceled that goal too because Silva must have been in the field of view of keeper Joe Hart. All discussions quickly became superfluous: Hart played a bad pass into the feet of Szoboszlai, who passed it on to Silva. The striker pushed in with the help of the inside post. In the closing stages, Silva made everything clear with his second goal after a remarkable move.
(SID)
TORE im VIDEO:
Nkunku gives RB a 1-0 lead (27′)
Jota equalized for the Scots (47′)
Silva scores to make it 2-1 for the Bulls (64′)
3:1! Silva brace (77′)
Featured image: Imago