Marco Rose wiped his forehead with his hand in relief. The Leipzig coach had to tremble in the home game against Hertha BSC after the sovereign 3-0 half-time lead had actually indicated a relatively relaxed Saturday evening. But RB finally saved the victory in a gripping 3: 2 (3: 0) a little happily over time and moved up to one point on the European Cup places.
“Luck was on our side. This is football, it can go fast. We have to learn from that and do better,” said RB midfielder Emil Forsberg, who scored the 1-0 lead (25th minute): “Great praise goes to the Berliners, they did a good job.”
Hertha’s defender Marc Oliver Kempf was proud of the almost successful comeback: “Everyone who saw the result in the first half assumed that we would go home with four or five things. We taught people better.” Chidera Ejuke (81′), Davie Selke (86′) and Wilfried Kanga (90’+4), who hit the post, missed great chances to equalize in a turbulent final phase.
Hertha’s defensive discipline
Rose made just two changes to his starting XI compared to the Glasgow win, showing he had the right instincts. Both Forsberg, who was playing for the sick Timo Werner, and Diallo, who was in the starting XI for Josko Gvardiol, scored and steered the initially mixed game in the direction of Leipzig before the break. It is possible that Rose will rotate more players in the DFB Cup against Hamburger SV on Tuesday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the DFB Cup and on Sky).
At first it didn’t look like the usual goal festival against Hertha. In the past, when the two teams met, an average of 3.75 goals per game were scored, but coach Sandro Schwarz has instilled greater defensive discipline in the capital club. This held in the initial phase in that Leipzig only had a top-class chance after 24 minutes through Christopher Nkunku, which Oliver Christensen defused.
A minute later, however, things went too fast for Hertha: Xaver Schlager captured the ball in midfield, Dominik Szoboslai crossed into the center, where Forsberg let the ball drift over his knee and into the goal. Five minutes later, Diallo caused the supporters to frenzy again from a corner, this time counting for his first goal in the RB shirt.
In Mainz, a goal by the central defender was disallowed. Shortly before the break, Orban finally increased to 3: 0: André Silva hit the post, but the defender stood perfectly and dusted off.
Black switched tactically, taking Ivan Sunjic from the field for striker Aka Kanga. On the left side of defense, Marvin Plattenhardt had to make way for Maximilian Mittelstädt. This did not result in chances at first, but Silva (50th) closed too hastily on the other side. A little later, Nkunku (59th) missed his goal. But there was support for Hertha when Diallo jumped a cross on the arm in the penalty area. Lukebakio confidently converted the penalty due.
Rose brought in two new full-backs and Kevin Kampl in central midfield to calm the game. That backfired at first. First Kampl caused a free kick, then he lost sight of his opponent Jovetic. The Montenegrin scored – and the game was open again. Leipzig tried to control the game, but Jovetic (70′), Chidera Ejuke (81′), Davie Selke (86′) and Wilfried Kanga (90’+4), who hit the post, had great chances to equalize. But Hertha didn’t manage to make it 3:3.
