A brilliant moment was enough for Real Madrid to win against RB Leipzig in the Champions League. In the 1-0 (0-0) on Tuesday evening, Brahim Díaz scored with a wonderful shot into the Leipzig goal shortly after the break. The hosts had numerous good opportunities themselves in front of 45,028 spectators in the sold-out Red Bull Arena and had an early goal disallowed for offside in a controversial situation. Ahead of the second leg of the round of 16 in Madrid on March 6th, the Bundesliga club is now under pressure despite a good performance over long stretches against the top Spanish team.
“We had our chances, in the end it was a nice individual action like that that decided. That’s very bitter for us because we were definitely not the worse team today,” said Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi on Amazon Prime. “We have nothing left to lose now. We go there and want to play a good game and score the first goal, then everything is open again.”
Three days after the clear 4-0 win in the top league game against second-placed Girona, Real was not present at all in Leipzig at the start of the game. Benjamin Sesko alone created several good chances for Leipzig. In the third minute he failed to get past Real goalkeeper Andrij Lunin, again in the tenth minute and then he hit the side netting with a deflected ball (20′). Leipzig was the more active team and should have led at the break.
The fact that it was 0-0 at half-time was also due to a controversial decision by the referees. In the second minute, a header from Sesko landed in the goal. The team from Bosnia-Herzegovina ruled for offside in the scene and was not corrected by video referee Pol van Boekel from the Netherlands – wrongly. Sesko was clearly not offside and Benjamin Henrichs was uninvolved behind goalkeeper Lunin.
“That was a goal that should have been given. I can’t find any arguments,” said Real professional Toni Kroos, who was recently so strong, about the situation. The former world champion said about the game: “It could have gone either way, let’s be honest.”
Because without Jude Bellingham, who injured his ankle, there was very little from Real for a long time. The record winner of the Champions League was surprisingly cautious and defensive and had some problems with Leipzig’s high pressing in the opening game. A shot by Eduardo Camavinga (9th) and two half chances by Rodrygo (23rd/42nd) were the only notable scenes in the attack before the break.
From what was initially a harmless situation, the Spaniards then took the lead. Bellingham substitute Díaz won the duel with national player David Raum as soon as he received the ball, beat Xavi Simons and Xaver Schlager while dribbling and finally flicked the ball past Willi Orban and Gulacsi into the goal with a wonderful shot.
Leipzig responded with a double chance from Dani Olmo and Schlager (51′), but were no longer as precise after going behind and often came under pressure due to their own mistakes. However, Real hardly made use of the available space. A shot from Rodrygo from six meters went well over the goal (64th), in other situations the Madrilenians acted too complicated and gave Leipzig the chance to move up. Mohamed Simakan, who was new to the starting line-up, had Vinicius Junior well under control – until he hit the post after a counterattack in the 72nd minute.
RB coach Marco Rose responded with a triple substitution in the 75th minute, bringing on Eljif Elmas, Yussuf Poulsen and Amadou Haidara for the disappointing Olmo, Lois Openda and Henrichs. Haidara’s inclusion quickly paid off: First he gave Sesko the next clear chance with a fine pass, but the 20-year-old Slovenian was once again denied by Lunin with his powerful shot. Then Haidara tested the Real goalkeeper himself from a distance and forced him to make a strong save (84th). But RB was no longer able to equalize.
