RB Leipzig 0-2 Borussia Dortmund
20/06/20
Dortmund out-powered Leipzig beating their top-four rivals two-nil in Timo Werner’s last home game for the Red Bulls.
Two goals from Norwegian wonderkid Erling Braut Haaland in each half finished off RB Leipzig.
-Augsburg all but secure safety after win over Mainz
This was a battle for who would be runners-up in the Bundesliga with Leipzig two points behind second place Dortmund with the final round of games being held next Saturday.
Permutations were simple. Leipzig win they go second. Anything else and Dortmund would retain their title as best-of-the-rest in Bundesliga.
Julien Nagelsmann was coming into the game with a poor record against Dortmund having won only one of his past eight meetings against the Black-Yellows and if any team needed fans in the stadium it was Leipzig, desperate for the roar of 42,000 Red Bull supporters after drawing their last five home games on the bounce.
Although they’ve secured European qualification Borussia Dortmund still had a lot to play for having come in for heavy criticism after their shock two-nil defeat at home to relegation strugglers Mainz in midweek. The fallout from that saw Jadon Sancho dropped to the bench and Real Madrid loanee Achraf Hakimi suspended, but the man who cut the most frustrated figure at the Red Bull Arena was Chelsea-bound Timo Werner who struggled to get on the ball in the first-half.
Dortmund striker Erling Haaland has come under criticism for recent displays even though the Norwegian international is producing impressive statistics in front of goal. Haaland has hit the back of the net 13 times in 11 appearances since moving from Leipzig’s sister club RB Salzburg in the January transfer window.
Tale of two strikers
Haaland had a host of chances in the first quarter of the match the best being a one-on-one from six yards which the big Norwegian hit straight at Peter Gulacsi.
Werner on the other hand, who has all but secured a move to Chelsea bar a delayed medical which will see the German international double his 75grand-a-week wages, was a peripheral figure in the opening stages.
Dortmund’s re-jigged defence, which saw former Liverpool midfielder Emre Can occupying the left of a back three, was holding firm whilst the Black-Yellows made numerous penetrating attacks the first one paying off on twenty-nine minutes which saw Haaland take his tally in a Dortmund shirt to 12 goals in 14 appearances.
Leipzig, who have only scored seven at home in the last five, were looking to their talismanic number eleven in response, and Werner’s chance arrived in the thirty-ninth minute when he found space behind Dortmund skipper Lukasz Piszczek and fizzed a shot across Gulacsi who stuck out a leg to save.
Scrappy second-half that closes the curtain on Werner’s career at the Red Bull Arena
If Frank Lampard is plotting what he can get out of Werner he would be dreaming about what he could do with Haaland. Leipzig could not handle the Norwegian giant who on fifty-one minutes found space, this time on the left, and powered a shot through the legs of Gulacsi who got just enough on it to deflect the ball onto the crossbar.
Timo Werner’s last chance to score a goal at home in a Red Bull shirt came on sixty-nine minutes with the ball almost falling to the German international but for the outstretched leg of Piszczek who made the clearance.
Dortmund have won the last eleven games when they have gone ahead first and this run seemed even more likely to continue when Werner was hauled off on sixty-nine minutes. His goal-scoring exploits for Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena would be met with the hollow sound of canned applause instead of the roar of approval from 40,000 home fans. A sombre end to the forward’s career in Saxony, but bigger things await on the horizon.
RB Leipzig: Gulacsi, Angelino, Upamelano, Sabitzer, Forsberg, Werner, Kloistermann, Schick, Mukiele, Halstenberg, Kempl
Subs: Mvogo, Tschauner, Orban, Konate, Haidara, Adams, Nkunku, Olmo, Krauss
Borussia Dortmund: Burki, Can, Hummels, Piszczek, Morey, Guerreiro, Witsel, Brandt, Hazard, Reyna, Haaland
Subs: Unbehaun, Balerdi, Sancho, Zagadou, Schul, Raschl, Furich, Rente, Pherai
Goals: Haaland 29’ 90+2
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 