Hoffenheim 0 – 2 RB Leipzig
12/06/20
There were many sub-plots coming into Hoffenheim’s match against RB Leipzig not least Hoffenheim’s coach Alfred Schreuder having left the Sinsheimers earlier in the week over differences of opinions.
Julian Nagelsmann was returning to the club he left for Leipzig and finds his team in a close run battle for second place in Bundesliga with a win taking Leipzig a point behind Borussia Dortmund while BVB still have to go to Leipzig later in the month. But all the backstories were thrown out the window when the game kicked-off.
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Within minutes Bundesliga player of the month contender Christoph Baumgartner found space in the box and poked his shot agonisingly wide of Peter Gulacsi’s post.
Moments later Hoffenheim were awarded a penalty when striker Steven Zuber was taken down by Gulacsi but as Munas Dabbur set the ball on the spot the video assistant referee was assessing an innocuous ball to hand incident that happened to Baumgartner in the build up to the original infringement. Unexpectedly Tobias Weiz reversed his decision and gave Leipzig a freekick.
All the goal scoring attention was on Timo Werner who, pending a delayed medical, has secured his transfer to Chelsea, however it was midfielder Dani Olmo who had his scoring boots firmly laced up.
Olmo bundled his way into the box and forced a powerful toe poke past Oliver Baumann then moments later Olmo added to his tally with a great finish keeping Marcel Sabitzer’s lay-off down and powering a half-volley past the despairing Baumann. Leipzig had conceded a penalty and were two up in ten minutes.
If Chelsea coach Frank Lampard was watching he might have winced at Werner’s miss just before half-time when Leipzig’s prolific number 11, through on goal, blazed his shot over the bar.
The game remained frantic and Hoffenheim, clearly still smarting from the penalty reversal, endeavoured to open their account. The closest they came in the first-half was a Dabbur header from a corner that cannoned off Gulacsi’s upright.
Werner’s half
The second-half gave a chance to see imminent Chelsea signing Timo Werner more closely, the German international showing a good deal of football intelligence that might explain part of the fifty-million pounds Chelsea are willing to separate with to seal the frontman’s services.
Werner didn’t have the pace to pass his man on fifty-eight minutes but his lay-off to full back Angelino Marcel allowed Nordi Mukiele a chance to head at the Hoffenheim goal.
On sixty-four minutes Werner, who often occupied a position on the left of the Hoffenheim defence, played a beautifully weighted lay-off to Olmo for his hat-trick, but the Leipzig midfielder curled a grass-cutter wide.
Hoffenheim continued to huff and puff but tired towards the end with Red Bull’s relentless attacks having the Sinsheimers’ pinned in their own half for much of the remainder of the game, which was capped off with an extraordinary strike by Ademola Lookman from twenty yards that cannoned off the Hoffenheim post.
Hoffenheim: Baumann, Kaderabek, Bilakcic, Geiger, Dabbur, Grillitsch, Baumgartner, Rudy, Zuber, Samassekou, Posch
Subs: Pewtke, Stafylidis, Nordtveit, Larssen, Bebou, Akpoguma, Kramaril, Skov, Beier
RB Leipzig: Gulacsi, Marcel, Sabitzer, Werner, Kloistermann, Schick, Mukiele, Halstenberg, Olmo, Laimer, Kampl
Subs: Mvogo, Orban, Konate, Haidara, Forsberg, Adams, Lookman, Nkunku, Krauss
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 