RB Leipzig continued the race to catch up in the Bundesliga with a great performance and didn’t give SC Freiburg a real chance on Wednesday (November 9th, 2022) – both teams are now close together in the table.
With the 3:1 (0:0) RB celebrated the eighth win in the eighth home game under Marco Rose and is only two points behind the Breisgauers, where the successful coach Christian Streich made a tactical mistake this time.
Streich changes tactics
Streich, who had little reason to change this season and largely stuck to his personal and tactical structure, surprised this time with a new variant: In Vincenzo Grifo, he sacrificed SC’s top scorer in favor of defensive man Kiliann Sildillia and presented – apparently out of respect before the Leipzig attack around Christopher Nkunku – from four to three chain.
The respect proved to be justified, even if the change was not exactly an encouraging signal to their own team. After 15 minutes, Dominik Szoboszlai quickly executed a free kick and sent Nkunku on his way. The Freiburg defense was unsorted for a moment, Nkunku lobped Mark Flekken, but the ball smacked the right post.
Gvardiol to the hospital
Freiburg played well as a result, and also looked for the way forward from time to time – but there were only chances on Leipzig’s side. André Silva was free in the 26th minute after a through pass from Xaver Schlager, but missed the goal. Shortly thereafter, Benjamin Henrichs had the opportunity to take the lead, but he also missed the goal of the Dutch World Cup contender.
Henrichs had only recently come on as a substitute, replacing Joško Gvardiol, who had to be substituted off and taken to hospital with a bleeding laceration on his cheekbone after a collision with team-mate Willi Orban. The Croatian wasn’t actually intended for RB’s starting XI either, but Abdou Diallo suffered a knee injury during the warm-up.
8:1 shots on goal – then the double strike
Nothing came offensively from Freiburg. The score at the break was 8:1 shots on target, and even after the restart only the hosts played forward. It was thanks to Flekken alone that the score was still 0-0 after 53 minutes, when the keeper deflected an Nkunku shot around the post with a world-class reflex. After that he was powerless – and twice.
Within 111 seconds, Leipzig turned the superiority into a clear thing with a double strike: Mohamed Simakan dusted off a corner kick in the 55th minute after Flekken had once again made a sensational save against Nkunku – but the ball bounced off the bottom edge of the bar right at Simakan.
Only Messi and De Bruyne are better
Freiburg found no antidote, no relief, gave the balls back in the build-up unusually quickly – so one attack wave after the other rolled towards the goal of the sports club. One of the outstanding players of the season initiated the preliminary decision: Szoboszlai staged Nkunku, who converted the ingenious pass via a lob over Flekken to make it 2-0.
It was Szoboszlai’s twelfth assist of the current season – only Lionel Messi and Kevin De Bruyne are better in this discipline in Europe.
Amazing effectiveness
The fronts seemed settled, but Freiburg got back into business out of nowhere. Joker Lucas Höler dealt with two opponents in the six-yard box of Freiburg, Marcel Halstenberg fended off the ball right in the center to Lukas Kübler, who shot hard – Janis Blaswich was powerless against his volley after 65 minutes.
The shot on goal balance at that time was 17:2 including Kübler’s cracker, so in terms of effectiveness you really couldn’t blame the sports club.
The hope of winning a point was gone, but didn’t last for long: after a fairly standard tussle between Nicolas Höfler and Nkunku, the Leipzig player sank to the ground in thanks. Since it grabbed a tiny bit of the shirt, the VAR apparently did not intervene and Harm Osmers’ penalty whistle survived: Emil Forsberg converted coolly to make it 3-1 (78 ‘).
Freiburg asks for the top game
On Matchday 15, SC Freiburg hosts FC Union Berlin for the top game (Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 5:30 p.m.). A day earlier, RB Leipzig is challenged away from newly promoted Bremen (3:30 p.m.).