Between Europa League and Cup: Nkunku keeps RB Leipzig on course

Narrow victory in Bochum

Thanks to Christopher Nkunku, RB Leipzig took an important step towards the Champions League between the Europa League and the DFB Cup. In a happy 1-0 (0-0) win at VfL Bochum, Leipzig celebrated their ninth win in their 13th competitive game under new coach Domenico Tedesco with the 14th goal of the season by the Frenchman, who was only a substitute this time (82nd). Ten games before the end of the season, RB maintained the important fourth place, which ultimately entitles them to participate in the Champions League.

Thus, a proud series of RB, which remained unbeaten in the 20th Bundesliga game against a promoted team and won for the 17th time. Two weeks after the 4-2 coup against FC Bayern Munich, the Bochum team did not disappoint despite their third home defeat of the season and still have a reasonably comfortable lead over the relegation zone.

For both of them it was also a dress rehearsal for the cup quarter-finals on Wednesday. Bochum welcomes league rivals SC Freiburg, Leipzig has to play second division side Hannover 96.

The RB professionals had an unusual journey on the day of the game. Because the team bus hit a bollard when leaving the Kaiserau sports school and was damaged, the players and coaches had to take taxis the 45-kilometer route to Bochum. The team therefore arrived late at the stadium. Nobody got hurt.

Compared to the 3: 1 on Thursday in the Europa League in San Sebastian, Tedesco had replaced almost the entire team. Only goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi and defensive players Mohamed Simakan, Willi Orban and Lukas Klostermann remained in the team. Colleague Thomas Reis also rotated with a view to the cup and exchanged four offensive players.

After the 3-0 defeat in the first leg, Bochum’s defense was the best in the league with 17 goals conceded from 16 games. VfL involved the more playful guests in a dogged fight from the start. Leipzig held back, but had to play with an unusual number of long balls and were robbed of some of their strengths.

RB’s first shot on goal was not noted until the 23rd minute when Yussuf Poulsen headed wide. The Expected Goals score, which shows how likely it is to score given the opportunities, was an incredible 0.1 to 0.03 at the break. More 0-0 is hardly possible.

The first goalkeeper to save a ball was Leipzig’s Gulácsi after a shot by Elvis Rexhbecaj (54′). Two minutes later, Bochum’s Milos Pantovic had the first big chance of the game, but shot over it. Now Tedesco made a substitution, and the three brought together offensive power with André Silva, Dani Olmo and Nkunku (58th). From then on there was a little more train in RB, but VfL almost scored the goal again with a crossbar header from captain Anthony Losilla (70th) and a post header from Christopher Antwi-Adjei (78th). Then Leipzig struck through Nkunku.

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