André Silva had already taken off his training jacket, the striker was stretching and stretching himself, and his working day was about to begin. His substitution meant the end of employment for a teammate, and Yussuf Poulsen probably suspected that it would hit him. The RB Leipzig striker had already looked to the sideline and possibly had already received a signal.
Poulsen picked up the pace again, he ran as fast as his exhausted legs could carry him towards the opponent’s penalty area. Christopher Nkunku brought the ball in from the left and suddenly Poulsen was there. At the second post he jumped into the flank and pushed the play equipment into the goal.
The energy performance of the Danish attacker ensured RB Leipzig a very important victory. The hosts won the duel between two Champions League participants with Borussia Dortmund with 2-1 goals and improved to fifth place. Dortmund, on the other hand, missed out on keeping up with leaders Bayern Munich. BVB is now four points behind the champions.
Nkunku pushes in without any problems
Both teams had to process different results from the Champions League before the game. Leipzig had wrested a 2: 2 from the world selection from Paris Saint-Germain with a late goal, Dortmund were defeated by Ajax Amsterdam with 1: 3. The Leipzig point win had also left questions, especially how it can be that RB completely surrendered a superior game over a long period of time through a single negative experience in the form of a goal.
From Leipzig’s point of view, there were some reminiscent of the Paris game against Dortmund, but with one major difference: this time, RB was not so easily thrown off track, the learning effect was unmistakable. As against Paris, Leipzig started at high speed against Dortmund. In a full sprint, the hosts ran to BVB, which was visibly impressed by the aggressiveness. Dortmund hardly got the ball from their own half, and there was always at least one Leipzig leg in between. So in the 13th minute, when Tyler Adams captured the ball and immediately played it into Christopher Nkunku’s barrel. But the Frenchman failed because of the Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
As a result, Kobel was more and more the center of attention, twice he had to clear out against Dominik Szoboszlai and Nkunku within a few moments (17th). After just under half an hour, however, the Swiss was powerless. Josip Gvardiol played a precise pass directly between the Dortmund defenders from defense. Nkunku recognized the situation, rounded Kobel and easily pushed into the Leipzig leadership (29th). It was noticeable how unhindered Gvardiol could play the ball, no Dortmund attacker put him under pressure, BVB’s pressing did not work at all.
Dortmund’s captain Marco Reus also blamed the tactical direction for this. Coach Marco Rose had opted for a three-man chain with three central central defenders, which became a five-man chain when the opponent had possession of the ball. “With the five-chain we have one man less in the center who can press with us, we can’t get along with that, you have to be clear about that,” said Reus on Sky TV. Rose contradicted in the same place. “The basic order is always one thing, the movement in the basic order is always the other, and it wasn’t good today. It’s not a question of the system, we’ve already scored points this season with a back three, the discussion is idle, ”said Rose.
Rose should have liked the Dortmund captain’s goal better than Reus’ words. Shortly after half-time, Reus scored a surprising equalizer, his goal was contrary to the previous event. But unlike against Paris, Leipzig was not shocked by the negative experience and immediately pushed for the lead again. However, Poulsen later admitted that the Dortmund goal had awakened memories of Paris. “I can’t lie and say it wasn’t on my mind,” said Poulsen.
The striker then drove his thoughts away with his goal to make it 2-1. Poulsen still had to go out afterwards, Silva came for him, but could no longer put himself in the limelight. Once the ball was still in the Dortmund goal, but the goal from Nordi Mukiele rightly did not count due to an offside position. “It was a deserved defeat, we simply didn’t invest enough for a game like this,” said Reus.
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