It took a while for RB Leipzig’s offensive unit to get going against an organised VfB Stuttgart and tempers began to fray at some of the refereeing decisions, but five second half goals from Benjamin Henrichs, Dani Olmo, Lois Openda, Kevin Kampl and Xaxi Simons saw them come from behind to cancel out Serhou Guirassy’s opener. Here are five takeaways from the Friday night action…
1- When the dam breaks….
The end result of 5-1 to Leipzig seemed a far and distant prospect at the end of the first half when it was more a case of frustration for the home side. The visitors defended well for the first 45 minutes with a 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 when out of possession and Leipzig were finding it hard to make any headway.
The equaliser when it came six minutes into the second period was somewhat fortunate, but nonetheless opened the floodgates. Benjamin Henrichs chased down a back pass from Dan-Axel Zagadou and the keeper’s clearance cannoned off him on into the net. A piece of genius from Dani Olmo made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute and the goals flowed from there.
Lois Openda headed in his second in two games with Kevin Kampl and Xavi Simons adding the others.
2- St. Olmo’s fire
Spaniard Dani Olmo has started the season on fire and his goal to make it 2-0 was a sublime piece of skill that saw him control the ball in order to line up a left-foot shot out of nothing before firing past Alexander Nübel before he even knew a shot had been taken.
A hat trick in the Supercup, one goal last week and now one tonight. No wonder his name is heard increasingly in transfer circles with the really big teams. He is Leipzig’s main man this season and they cannot afford to see him leave.
3- They only remember the blunders
The thing is with goalkeepers is that no matter how many great saves you make, it’s always the blunders people remember and that will be the case with Alexander Nübel tonight. He made a number of top saves at point-blank range to deny goals (Willi Orban and Lois Openda), but his error led to the equaliser and he was very fortunate that a second even bigger howler saw him saved by VAR when he fumbled Yussuf Poulsen’s cross and Openda fired in.
4- Stuttgart won the first half at least
After hitting five last weekend to beat Bochum, the Swabians were on the other side of a five-goal mauling at the Red Bull Arena to continue their poor run against the Roten Bullen.
To take any positives from the game, coach Sebastian Hoeneß will need to focus on the first half where his side defended well when out of possession and closed the spaces available to the hosts. They took the lead ten minutes before the interval through Serhou Guirassy and were good for their first half lead. The less said about the second 45 minutes the better really.
5- Marco Rose needs a chill pill
The frustrations that Leipzig were feeling on the pitch at their failure to break Stuttgart down in the first period spilt over the technical area where trainer Marco Rose threatened to combust at times. He vented his anger at the fourth official and referee Frank Willenborg over a penalty not given to Willi Orban and various other free kick decisions. The Leipzig coach went too far as the players left the pitch at the break and was duly yellow carded. Luckily for his blood pressure, his side’s second half comeback gave him less to complain about.
