Leipzig (AP) – The teammates thanked the dream goal scorer individually on the lawn, and the fans in the stands sang the cheers.
After a stroke of genius by Angeliño, RB Leipzig can dream of the first European Cup final in the club’s history. In the 85th minute, the Spaniard took a shot from 20 meters and gave the dominant but for a long time unimaginative hosts a much-celebrated 1-0 (0-0) victory against Glasgow Rangers in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League. “We can thank Angeliño for that Sunday shot,” said teammate Benjamin Henrichs. “We deserve it,” said the goalscorer.
With “half leg” in the final
It was certainly not an outstanding game from RB, said RB CEO Oliver Mintzlaff on RTL +. But you would have “half a leg” in the final. “We’ll definitely have a little head start when we go to Glasgow next week.”
In front of 40,303 spectators in the Red Bull Arena, coach Domenico Tedesco’s favorite team had a hard time against the Scots for a long time. “Anyone who’s in the semi-finals deserves it. They’re not just casual customers,” emphasized Mintzlaff, looking ahead: they would have to learn the lessons for the second leg on Thursday next week.
RB should certainly draw the belief in getting ahead again from the previous rounds. In the first leg against San Sebastian and in the first leg against Bergamo, Leipzig didn’t even get beyond a draw. In the second meeting, they won impressively and advanced to the next round.
Numerous Rangers fans in Leipzig
A good 7,000 Rangers fans accompanied their team to Leipzig, and the colors white, blue and red dominated the city center throughout Thursday. The chants of the two fan camps were what kept the neutral spectators awake in the first half. The Rangers defended their penalty area with eight professionals, Leipzig diligently practiced cross passes with more than 70 percent ball possession – which initially gave the game an enormous potential to fall asleep.
The suspended and sorely missed playmaker Kevin Kampl had given something completely different before kick-off. “Score a goal or two to open the door as wide as possible,” said the 31-year-old over the stadium microphone. In the first section, however, RB only created three near chances through Christopher Nkunku (17th), Konrad Laimer (18th) and Angeliño (31st). Tedesco took a sip from his water bottle and hurried into the dressing room with an unenthusiastic expression on his face.
However, he did not react immediately and left his two nominal strikers André Silva and Yussuf Poulsen on the bench for the time being. The 36-year-old saw the best chance of the game so far – for Glasgow. However, Ryan Kent’s shot (49′) went wide of the back post. Leipzig’s response was a powerful shot from Nkunku (53′), which, however, was not placed enough.
However, RB was still too harmless and too complicated in the game system. Tedesco kept applauding his players, cheering them up. The spectators weren’t that patient, after 65 minutes there were first whistles. Then Nkunku (71 ‘) had the lead on his foot, Rangers keeper Allan McGregor was already cornered, but the Frenchman threw the ball over it from ten meters. Now Tedesco reacted, bringing on Silva and Emil Forsberg (72’) for Dominik Szoboszlai and Dani Olmo. The goal that was so important and longed for was scored by someone else – and how!