Fan death overshadows Leipzig’s win against Magdeburg

RB Leipzig’s easy quarter-final entry in the DFB Cup was overshadowed by the death of a fan. As in the second round victory in Cottbus, a spectator who had to be resuscitated in front of the stadium later died in hospital. After falling behind against second division bottom club 1. FC Magdeburg, the Bundesliga club turned the game around and moved into the quarter-finals with a 3-1 (2-1) win against the Elbestadt team.

Silas Gnaka (11th minute) gave the guests the lead with a penalty kick before Antonio Nusa (19th) and Christoph Baumgartner (30th/54th) turned the game around in the Red Bull Arena.

Another death in the RB game

“We were all looking forward to a beautiful cup evening under the floodlights. Now it is overshadowed by sad news. We unfortunately have to inform you that the 1. FC Magdeburg fan, who had to be resuscitated before the game, died in hospital. We are sad and full of sympathy for the relatives,” said RB.

Pyro in the Magdeburg block despite news of death

For the Leipzig team, support was completely stopped out of respect, while the Magdeburg supporters sang and repeatedly set off pyrotechnics despite information about the stadium announcer. The FCM officials, fan representatives and the curve were also informed by the host club.

The game in Leipzig had bitter news for coach Ole Werner even before kick-off. After the loss of national player Ridle Baku, who suffered a syndesmotic ligament injury in his left ankle, Johan Bakayoko was also missing for a short time with muscular problems. In the back four, Werner brought in Lukas Klostermann for Baku, who had a needed day.

Bottom of the league takes the lead

The Elbestadt team, where coach Petrik Sander only rotated Noah Pesch into the starting line-up for Philipp Hercher after the 3-0 win against Nuremberg, got into the game well. Alexander Nollenberger (7th) had the lead, but Maarten Vandevoordt, who was once again allowed to play in the cup for RB regular goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, prevented an early deficit. Then Klostermann went too hard against Noah Michel and the referee pointed to the spot. Gnaka (11th) converted safely.

Leipzig increases the pace

RB was not very impressed, shifted up a gear, combined through the visitors’ defense and scored with a long-range shot from Nusa (19th) to make it 1-1. Then the Norwegian played with the Dane Conrad Harder in a triangle to the Austrian Baumgartner (30th), who turned the game with his goal.

At the restart, Werner brought on Kosta Nedeljkovic for the weak Klostermann at RB, while Xaver Schlager was allowed to replace Ezechiel Banzuzi. The Bundesliga runners-up were also the dominant team. Baumgartner (54th) picked up a cross pass from Nusa and shot the ball unstoppably into the bottom left corner. FCM keeper Dominik Reimann then prevented a further deficit.