Mönchengladbach (dpa) – RB Leipzig suffered a defeat before the semi-final second leg in the Europa League and has to worry about qualifying for the Champions League next season.
The runners-up lost 3-1 (2-1) to Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Monday evening. In front of 35,324 spectators in Borussia-Park, Breel Embolo (17th minute) and national player Jonas Hofmann (45th + 2/77th) scored the goals for the hosts, who after a red card for Nico Elvedi (64th) because of an emergency brake in outnumbered. Christopher Nkunku’s goal (36th) was not enough for Leipzig, who fell back to fifth place due to the defeat and thus slipped out of the Champions League places.
After a very disappointing season overall, Gladbach can still hope for a conciliatory end to the season and a single-digit place in the table again. Borussia have always managed to do that for ten years.
Only after the break, when Leipzig suddenly put pressure on, did coach Adi Hütter’s team have to fight for victory. Before the change, Leipzig had seemed quite inhibited between the semifinals against Rangers. With five new players compared to the 1-0 win against Glasgow last Thursday, the visitors left the game to Borussia, who did not play international Matthias Ginter. Ginter is said to be on the verge of returning to his youth club SC Freiburg at the end of the season, which is now ahead of Leipzig on a Champions League spot.
Leipzig loses despite individual class
Leipzig was given the tour of Embolo by Konrad Laimer himself. It was the fifth goal in the last six league games for the Swiss international. The Saxons were lucky after almost half an hour that referee Martin Petersen left Josko Gvardiol, who had already been warned, on the field after his second yellow-worthy foul. The Croatian was taken off the field by Tesdesco for Marcel Halstenberg shortly afterwards, but Leipzig was able to continue playing with eleven players and, thanks to individual class, equalized at the first opportunity.
Nkunku, who has been so strong this season, received a pass from André Silva and made four Borussia look old: Luca Netz, Nico Elvedi, Ramy Bensebaini and keeper Yann Sommer had no chance against the French offensive player, who scored his 31st competitive goal in the 48th game game scored this season.
Overall, however, the Gladbachers kept the pressure on at least before the break and deservedly went into the break with a lead because national player Hofmann used a brilliant Embolo pass in injury time in the first half.
After the break, only Leipzig played and after an hour they were in the majority, because Elvedi’s clumsy attempt to defend against Nkunku failed and the Swiss had to leave the field because of this emergency brake. Despite now significantly more ball possession and the numerical superiority, Leipzig was too unimaginative in attack and even conceded the third goal through Hofmann. The Saxons fly straight from Düsseldorf to Scotland on Tuesday, where the return leg in Glasgow is scheduled for Thursday. RB won the semi-final first leg of the Europa League 1-0.