Soaking wet, coach Marco Rose and the RB Leipzig professionals stood in front of around 500 fans in the corner and cheered their early entry into the round of 16 of the Champions League. With a 2-1 (1-0) win against Red Star Belgrade in the Marakana cauldron, the Saxons secured second place in Group G for the first time after just four match days.
Xavi Simons (8th minute) and Lois Openda (77th) scored on Tuesday evening for the guests, who had to tremble a bit in the final minutes after a cross from Guelor Kanga (81st) was deflected by Benjamin Henrichs. Because defending champions Manchester City won 3-0 against Young Boys Bern at the same time, the success was enough to advance to the knockout round.
“We played a very good first half, we just should have scored more goals,” said captain Emil Forsberg on the sports channel “DAZN”. “We had problems in the second half. It’s not easy here, but in the end we’re through.”
Belgrade’s fitness trainer Nikola Todoric was shown the red card after 20 minutes after he intercepted the rushing Openda in front of the bench. It was initially unclear whether there was a verbal argument or whether, in the referee’s opinion, he had held Openda’s arm longer than necessary in front of the 41,961 spectators.
Early leadership is good
By this point, Leipzig had long since taken control and was making good use of the available space. There was no sign of the hosts’ announced compact defense. After two recent defeats without a goal of their own against Wolfsburg and Mainz, the early lead thanks to Xavi’s remarkable goal did the Leipzig team a lot of good.
The exceptional talent drove the ball into the penalty area himself and then shot it into the far corner with great feeling and skill. Omri Glazer, who was outstanding in the hosts’ goal in the first leg, stretched in vain.
As in the first leg, however, Leipzig slowed down after taking the early lead. The next chance only came with a deflected shot from Openda (41′). Nevertheless, the guests should have increased before the break.
First, Openda failed to get past Glazer (44′) after a bad pass from his opponent. Shortly afterwards, Forsberg finished in the penalty area and put the ball next to the goal from a good eleven meters. The Swede had not been on the starting grid three times in a row.
The first clear chance after the break also went unused. Benjamin Sesko put the ball flat against the post from outside the penalty area (51′). Coach Rose then gestured with his arms while standing on the sideline and encouraged his team to continue playing forward. Seconds later, Openda’s backheel attempt was denied by goalkeeper Glazer (53′), who kept the Serbs, who were second in the domestic league behind Partizan Belgrade, in the game.
Rain battle in Belgrade’s Marakana
As the game wore on and the rain became increasingly heavy, Rose changed his offensive orientation and brought on Lukas Klostermann for Seko and Christoph Baumgartner for Forsberg. Defensively, Leipzig now played with a five-man chain when Red Star had the ball – but was unable to prevent the hosts’ best chance. RB keeper Janis Blaswich had to react exceptionally twice within seconds when first Peter Olayinka and then Cherif Ndiaye fired at his goal from close range.
Leipzig still stayed cool and took advantage of the first good counterattack opportunity to make it 2-0. Xaver Schlager sent Openda on his way with a wonderful pass and the 23-year-old made the victory and the round of 16 seemingly perfect with a shot into the near corner, before Henrichs’ own goal in the 81st minute caused a lot of excitement again. Glaswich had to react really strongly again in stoppage time – then everyone celebrated.