One point would have been enough, but Leipzig plays it safe: In Warsaw, the Bundesliga side ironed out the first-leg defeat and poured Donetsk a lot. This means that the Saxons, together with the Spanish defending champions, easily make it into the round of 16 in the Champions League.
World Cup shock for Timo Werner, round of 16 for RB Leipzig: The cup winner has made it into the knockout round of the Champions League for the third time, but, like national coach Hansi Flick, is worried about Timo Werner. The national soccer player was injured in the 4-0 (1-0) win against Shakhtar Donetsk and had to be replaced three weeks before the World Cup in Qatar with a left ankle injury.
Werner tried for a few more minutes after Taras Stepanenko’s foul, but limped into the Warsaw Stadion dressing room in the 19th minute with his head down. The severity of the injury was initially unclear. Werner complained of pain in his foot. More detailed examinations are to be carried out in the hospital in Leipzig on Thursday. Germany will play their first game of the World Cup on November 23 against Japan.
At the time Werner was substituted, Christopher Nkunku (10′) had already given Leipzig the lead when he dusted off his fellow striker after a missed chance. André Silva (50′), Dominik Szoboszlai (62′) and Valeri Bondar scored the final score with an own goal after a shot by Dani Olmo (68′). Leipzig thus qualified for the round of 16 as second in Group F behind defending champions Real Madrid (5:1 against Celtic Glasgow in the parallel game). It didn’t look like it after the start of the group phase with two defeats a month ago.
After nine unbeaten games in a row, one point was enough for Leipzig in the game that was relocated to Warsaw due to the Ukraine war. Before the game, there were unnecessary scenes at the entrance to the guest block. Leipzig fans criticized what they saw as tough admission controls, wrote on Twitter that women almost had to undress and minors “were touched intimately without cause”. The club confirmed that. As a consequence, the active fan scene decided to dismantle the planned choreography. In addition, the fan banners were hung upside down as a sign of protest.
There was still verbal support – and the team acted spurred on by it. Leipzig started with pressure, Werner failed after eight minutes with a shot from an acute angle. Two minutes later, the international escaped again through the intersection of Donetsk’s back four. Goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin fended off his attempt, but right in front of Nkunku’s feet. He celebrated his third goal of the season in the premier class in an extremely creative way: Nkunku took a red balloon out of his neck, blew it up and let himself be celebrated with his arms stretched out to the side.
The Leipzig game got a break with the Werner substitution, Emil Forsberg, who came for him, initially hardly set any offensive accents. But Donetsk had some dangerous scenes, but didn’t stay consistent enough in the end.
Silva showed the necessary consistency shortly after half-time. An imprecise cross from David Raum was headed by Mohamed Simakan as an arc lamp from the right side to the far post, where Silva stood and punished Trubin’s hesitant run out. Donetsk now needed three goals, which gave Leipzig room to counterattack.
Leipzig remained snappy and made the preliminary decision. Kevin Kampl captured the ball on the center line and quickly switched with a pass to Nkunku. The France international served Szoboszlai, who rounded and completed Trubin. Rose was now able to conserve energy with a view to Saturday’s game in Hoffenheim, taking Raum, Szoboszlai and Simakan off the field. And joker Dani Olmo scored with a superb curl just 26 seconds after coming on as a substitute, although UEFA, after repeated consideration, turned it into a Donetsk own goal.
