Sunday game against Bremen: Leipzig wins under the eyes of Klopp

On Tuesday, a new era officially begins for the sports conglomerate, which operates under the acronym “RB”; at the weekend it cast its shadows ahead. It spread across various branches of the intercontinental operating aluminum can octopus: on Friday in Munich at ice hockey, on Saturday at second-list Pariser FC, and finally on Sunday in Leipzig, where SV Werder Bremen was a guest.

Jürgen Klopp was seen in the VIP stands at the above-mentioned RB locations; he has been the “Head of Global Something” at RB since New Year’s Day, as Leipzig coach Marco Rose put it on Friday. And it turned out that Klopp can be used as a talisman. Less so at the Munich EHC, which lost to Bremerhaven; But probably in his core competence, football. The PFC won 1-0 against Amiens – and Leipzig won 4-2 (2-1) against Werder. The Saxons defended their fourth place in the table, while the Bremen team remained stuck in the middle of the table.

Leipzig’s victory in freezing temperatures was primarily based on the individual class of the returnee Xavi Simons. The Dutchman had been out since October 19th due to an ankle injury; Against Werder he showed what importance he has for his team.

However, Werder’s defense was guilty of active collaboration on both Simons’ goals – especially on the simple opening goal. After a throw-in from David Raum and a header from Loïs Openda, Simons was only able to shoot in from 16 meters because the resistance correlated with the temperature in the stadium. It was zero (23rd).

Benjamin Sesko loaded his right leg like the Brazilian Roberto Carlos did his left

Simons was able to follow up the immediate reply from Werder’s right-back Mitchell Weiser (26th) to make it 2-1 (35th) because he was hardly bothered during a sprint across half the pitch, which he followed up with a deflected shot. Bremen’s defensive inadequacies were also evident after the start of the second half: Benjamin Sesko intercepted a bad pass from Weiser and loaded his right leg like the Brazilian Roberto Carlos did his left. Sesko drove the ball under the crossbar from 20 meters with such force that Werder’s goalkeeper Michael Zetterer only had his arms up when the ball was in the net (47th).

The clearness of Leipzig’s lead was a mirage in that Bremen had put in a thoroughly appealing team performance in terms of football. Not only did they combine well and thoughtfully when Weiser scored, but they also had the better chances at the start of the game. In the tenth minute, Nicolas Seiwald, who was called up as a three-man defender on a temporary basis and was unfamiliar with the field, was lucky that Werder’s attacker Marvin Ducksch slipped in the six-yard box; Shortly afterwards, Romano Schmid chested a sharp cross just over the goal.

The Leipzig team, on the other hand, had a hard time when the Bremen team had all their senses focused on defense. But: They knew how to take advantage of any Hanseatic inattention – to the delight of Klopp.

It may have been even greater because RB managed to cope without Simons and David Raum in the last half hour. They were substituted after their injury breaks for load management purposes; This helped, among other things, the previous Wolfsburg Ridle Baku to make their RB debut.

Werder achieved a certain dominance, but RB posed a real danger. For example by Willi Orban and Sesko, also by Antonio Nusa, who first checked Zetterer and put the ball on the post in the 80th minute. At the very end, goals were scored by two substitutes: first Leipzig’s Christoph Baumgartner scored (90th) – and Werder’s Oliver Burke made the final score 2:4.