RB Leipzig continues its successful run. The Saxons won their sixth competitive game in a row before the winter break and inflicted the next defeat of the English week on Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. In the Hanseatic League, Leipzig won 2-1 (1-0) on Saturday afternoon. The cup winners confirmed their excellent form in a fast-paced but balanced game. The club has won the twelfth of 16 games since coach Marco Rose took office. Before the game between SC Freiburg and Union Berlin and the game of Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday, the Saxons moved up to second place in the table.
“When you look at it like that, it feels really great,” said goalkeeper Janis Blaswich about the “well-deserved victory”. “Regardless of where we are in the table, we’ve played extremely intensively in the last few weeks,” added Peter Gulacsi, the replacement for first-choice goalkeeper.
Both teams are currently among the most dangerous teams in the league. Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku (12 goals) and Bremen’s Niclas Füllkrug (10), who was called up to the German national team’s World Cup squad on Thursday, are currently among the best shooters in the league.
But neither the French World Cup participant Nkunku nor Füllkrug were able to score in front of 41,500 spectators in the Weser Stadium. Leipzig’s attacker André Silva (13th minute) gave Leipzig the lead with the first big chance by scoring in the penalty area without resistance. Christian Groß (57th) equalized with a deflected shot from the edge of the penalty area. Xaver Schlager (71st) put the Saxons back in the lead and made the final score.
Füllkrug returned to the starting XI of the Hanseatic League after suffering a back injury. The attacker attracted attention with a good rate of tackles, but hardly had any promising goal actions. The 29-year-old failed with his first chance (22nd) in front of the overall strong RB goalkeeper Janis Blaswich and missed the equalizer.
Nkunku got going late and several times had the potential 2-0 for the guests on his feet (45+1/52). In the final minutes in particular, some French fans must have held their breath when the attacker was fouled twice and fell briefly on the ground.
Werder lost 6-1 at Bayern Munich on Tuesday. The Bremen were mostly equal. They fought against the deficit, but often failed because of the strong Leipzig defense or goalkeeper Blaswich.
