RB Leipzig have also failed to win their third game in a row and are in a results crisis. Thanks to the 0-0 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Saxons remain in second place in the Bundesliga after the tenth matchday. However, the gap to Bayern Munich grew to five points. In front of 46,887 fans, Leipzig were once again far too harmless for long stretches, giving coach Marco Rose an international break with a full homework book.
After the defeats in Dortmund and Glasgow, Rose had already used many tricks from the soccer coaching handbook. The RB coach gave speeches to the team, gave the professionals a day off to clear their heads, criticized them publicly - and against Gladbach he chose yet another basic formation. A back three with the offensive focus on the left side, where the fine technician Antonio Nusa played in place of the rather robust and already injured David Raum.
Gulacsi called upon several times
However, there was only a sense of optimism for a few minutes. Leipzig's play had then reached a level of sluggishness due to a high rate of misplaced passes, which led to increased harmlessness in attack. Gladbach liked that and the visitors sensed that something was up today.
Robin Hack took a rather optimistic approach with an attempt from 40 meters, but RB keeper Peter Gulacsi saved for a corner (9th). The duel between Gulacsi and Gladbach was on. Rocco Reitz was completely free to head home from a corner, but Gulacsi made another save. After a good quarter of an hour, Leipzig also scored their first goal, but Christoph Baumgartner's attempted shot slipped too far over his foot. Five minutes later, the track experiment with Nusa paid off for the first time. The Norwegian dribbled his way down the wing, but the cross was a little too high.
Latte saves Leipzig
Gulacsi had long since reached operating temperature - and Gladbach kept him warm. Tim Kleindienst stole away after a cross from Willi Orban's back and Gulacsi saved his shot from a few meters out (22'). Two minutes later, the Hungarian international was on hand to save Marvin Friedrich's header. And when Gulacsi had no chance, he saved the crossbar, as he did with Franck Honorat's shot (43').
And Leipzig? Almost celebrated an own goal. Joe Scally slid in a pass from Nusa into the penalty area, Gladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas was already heading in the other direction. But the ball rolled past the far post (36'). Shortly before the break, Baumgartner tested Nicolas' qualities with a header following a corner, but the Gladbach goalkeeper was in no way inferior to Gulacsi. Interesting goal statistics at half-time: 11:3 - for Gladbach.
Baumgartner's big chance
The five-time German champions had arrived with confidence after a 4:1 win against Bremen. Gladbach's desire to win the game was much more evident over long stretches than that of the Saxons.
They at least came out of the break a little more energetically and won a series of corners. It did not become really dangerous. But Leipzig now had the upper hand and had a great chance to take the lead through Baumgartner, but Nicolas made a strong reflex save (64'). Rose went one better, bringing on Benjamin Sesko and Amadou Haidara. Gladbach, on the other hand, looked tired and limited themselves to occasional counter-attacks.
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