RB presents BVB after “conversation”.
Leipzig also keeps wildly nagging Hummels in check
By David Needy, Leipzig
4/6/2023 7:17 am
After three bitter bankruptcies in a row, RB Leipzig conjures up a top-class football match against Dortmund in the DFB Cup. The dream of defending the title is alive thanks to an important “conversation” – even if Mats Hummels wants to get to Timo Werner.
Mats Hummels needs to speak. No, Mats Hummels is beside himself. It was already overtime in RB Leipzig’s 2-0 (1-0) win over Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup when Dominik Szoboszlai rustically cleared Donyell Malen on the right flank deep in BVB’s half when he tried to clear. Then the Dutchman’s fuses burned out. He pushes and is pushed back until a small black-yellow-red-white knot forms.
The replaced Hummels doesn’t need to be asked twice, for one last spurt into the pack formation it’s enough for the 34-year-old ex-national player. In front of the Leipzig bench he messed with Werner, kept pointing to the goal scorer who had also been substituted to make it 1-0 and even grabbed his jacket. The situation is confusing, Dani Olmo is said to have sprayed water. Be that as it may, Leipzig easily fended off Dortmund’s most dangerous attack that evening. Hummels sees the yellow card on the bench. He waves it off. Laughs sarcastically. Two minutes later, RB coldly makes an umpteenth counterattack and Willi Orban scores to make it 2-0 (98th). Hummels discusses with the referee after the final whistle while the Saxons dance happily.
Leipzig lost three competitive games in a row before the duel with Dortmund. 0:11 goals is the miserable yield. But coach Marco Rose’s men don’t want to know anything about a series of bankruptcies from the first minute. The offensive around Werner, who has been unlucky and goalless for three games, burns off fireworks, the team that went 0-3 against Mainz 05 at the weekend pressed BVB to the ground. What four changes in the starting eleven can sometimes make, such a dominance against the second in the Bundesliga can otherwise only be achieved by FC Bayern.
“Could have led much higher”
“We’ve had enough character tests in the last few weeks,” explains a cheerful Werner after reaching the semi-finals. “It was a 6 and failed. Today it was a smooth 1.” His coach Rose adds: “You can make plans, in the end you have to do it and implement it. That’s what we have today.” A dig at Dortmund, who also wanted to show a special reaction after the bankruptcy in Munich last Saturday? Whatever the case, his team “deserved to win,” said the coach. “We were very, very present in pressing and good at switching. Then very quickly. We could have been a lot higher.”
“Have to,” Rose should have said. Leipzig should have led higher. After the power play of the first quarter of an hour, it was 1-0 (22nd), because RB once again acted too quickly for BVB. Mohamed Simakan and Szoboszlai refuel on the right forward. In the penalty area, Hummels has no chance in the sprint duel with Simakan, whose precise cross Werner skillfully pushes into the left corner. “That was a typical RB goal,” explains the scorer. “We win the ball and switch gears. That’s what we’ve done too seldom in the past few weeks.”
After that, the Saxons have more great chances. The Spaniard Olmo, who was promoted to the starting XI, is making a lot of noise. Werner is happy: “Olmo helped me a lot as a striker. That’s the kind of football we want to play.” In the 39th minute it has to be 2-0 at the latest, but after Dortmund lost the ball in midfield, Werner put the ball in front of goalkeeper Gregor Kobel in an inaccurate and unnecessarily way when he counterattacked. The huge opportunity fizzles out.
Important conversations, “violent” feelings
It doesn’t matter, the Saxons don’t have to fear Dortmund for a second of the game, they act so dominantly and calmly in all zones of the field. Christopher Nkunku not fit yet and not even on the bench? gift. Yussuf Poulsen still injured? Doesn’t matter at all this Wednesday evening. Even the fact that Konrad Laimer missed the clearest chance of the game in the 78th minute doesn’t interest anyone later. Laimer runs completely freely towards Kobel when Emil Forsberg initiates a counter-attack in his own half with a noble heel at Szoboszlai. But then the midfielder has time to think and quarrels a little too long, so that Hummels can straddle in between. Laimer lets the defender fly into space with a feint, but his shot is then too imprecise and Kobel parries outstandingly.
“We were sharper and had more grip,” summarized Orban aptly shortly after the game. And he explains the real reason for the victory. “We talked a lot and it feels good when it bears fruit.” Through the “talks” the team would have “regained this freshness”. By that he means team meetings of the kickers alone, without a coach, as Benjamin Henrichs also confirms. “That did us good.” He adds: “Everyone pushed, everyone motivated before the game.” It was a “strong feeling” that the victory over BVB was one of those games “that you dream of as a little boy. The mood today was one of the best since I’ve been in Leipzig.”
The quarter-finals in the Red Bull Arena had special omens from the start. The reason for this was not the 22 players on the field, but the kickers from FC Bayern Munich, who were knocked out of the DFB Cup against SC Freiburg in added time on Tuesday evening. The winner between Dortmund and Leipzig would move into the semifinals as the top favorite, that much was clear. Now the defending champions can celebrate their second consecutive cup win and save a mediocre season in which Bundesliga qualification for the Champions League is in jeopardy.
“We want to go back to Berlin, we want to win the title again,” says Henrichs confidently. His coach Marko Rose explains: “Now we know again how to win football games. We know what it takes. That was the right reaction.” A reaction that only one of the teams shows that evening. Even Mats Hummels with his thin-skinned bank sprint and verbal battle can’t change anything about it.