With a 4-0 win against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday, RB Leipzig impressively cleared all doubts and advanced to the knockout stages of the 2022/23 Champions League. The Red Bulls have to pay dearly for their success. There was also bad news for the DFB team.
Striker Timo Werner, who had to be substituted after 19 minutes on Wednesday, suffered a torn syndesmosis ligament in his left ankle against Donetsk and will not be able to play until the end of the year. RB Leipzig announced this on Thursday.
It is also clear that the 26-year-old will not be available for the German national soccer team at the World Cup in Qatar (November 20th to December 18th).
A major setback for the selection of national coach Hansi Flick, who is not really lavishly staffed, especially on the offensive. Werner has not yet been able to consistently shine as a goalscorer under Flick, but the native of Stuttgart has been called up very regularly. In the 5-2 win against Italy, he was one of the best players on the pitch with two goals.
The DFB team is missing a “killer”
With a total of 24 goals in 55 international matches, Werner is also the second most successful goal-getter that Flick has at his disposal. Only Thomas Müller from FC Bayern has been more successful (44 goals/118 internationals). Serge Gnabry (20 goals/36 international matches) and Mario Götze (17 goals/63 international matches) follow from the active side.
Werner’s failure shouldn’t exactly alleviate the German storm problems. Sami Khedira, who won the title with Germany in 2014, recently emphasized that the situation is not rosy. “We have top players, but we lack the classic nine, the Klose type, the killer in front of goal. That may ultimately cost us the title and mean that we don’t quite get where we want to go “, so Khedira in an interview with the “SID”.