Gyökeres successful as a joker
©IMAGO
Relief at RB Leipzig, sigh of relief at Marco Rose: The Saxons got their first win in the reformed Champions League at the seventh attempt and gave their criticized coach some peace. In the sportingly meaningless game against Sporting Lisbon, Leipzig, who had already been eliminated, won 2-1 (1-0) and got their first points – certainly good for their self-confidence before the Bundesliga clash against Leverkusen on Saturday.
Benjamin Sesko (19th minute) took the deserved lead against the Portuguese champions, who were without their top striker Viktor Gyökeres in the starting line-up. The fans, who weren’t exactly there in large numbers – there were 33,468 according to RB figures – then saw a Gyökeres goal. The substitute Swede (75th) scored the equalizer, which Yussuf Poulsen (78th) converted shortly afterwards into an RB lead.
The fans saw Leipzig’s first good combination on the right after eight minutes, but Loïs Openda’s finish was too harmless. Things went better eleven minutes later. Christoph Baumgartner’s pass after winning the ball was intercepted, but the ball landed at the feet of Xavi Simons. The Dutchman served David Raum on the left side, after his equally flat and sharp cross, Sesko just had to hold out his foot centrally.
Both teams initially remained at about the same level, in the impressive game Maximiliano Araujo (29th) had the equalizer on foot. However, Baumgartner intervened in dire need. Shortly afterwards, Raum celebrated loudly, but the national player’s goal (32nd) was withdrawn after video evidence. Openda was offside. Shortly before the break, Raum (43′) was there at the back and blocked a shot from Ivan Fresneda, who was standing free in the penalty area.
The level of entertainment remained high. Simons (48th) went around two Sporting defenders in the penalty area, but shot over the already empty goal. Amadou Haidara (51′) failed to hit the post with his shot from distance. Lisbon coach Rui Borges had seen enough and brought on his star player Gyökeres in the 55th minute. It took about 20 minutes to get started. The Swede got the ball a good 25 meters from the goal, allowed RB defense chief Willi Orban to run with him briefly before leaving him standing and sending the ball into the corner. This season the sixth premier class goal in the seventh game for Gyökeres. Poulsen doesn’t have nearly as good a rating. But the RB attacker still scored for Leipzig straight away.