With the success of the cup behind them, RB Leipzig found their way back into the Bundesliga with difficulty and regained a place in the Champions League. Coach Marco Rose’s team won 1-0 (1-0) at Hertha BSC three days after beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0.
The Saxons climbed to fourth place in the table and at the same time missed the Berliners a setback in the relegation battle.
In front of 50,679 spectators in the Olympic Stadium, Amadou Haidara (39th, according to video evidence) scored for Leipzig. RB had recently suffered two league bankruptcies, but on Wednesday they made it into the semi-finals of the DFB Cup with a dominant performance against BVB.
While Leipzig has their sights set on qualifying for the premier class again, Hertha still has to worry about staying up in the relegation zone with 22 points and could even slip to the bottom of the table on Sunday.
Rose wanted to take the “tailwind” from the triumph against Dortmund into everyday league life, but at the same time had warned that it would be “a completely different game” for the Berliners. Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz called RB’s performance in the cup “impressive” and his team had to “fire everything” against Leipzig.
Schwarz sent his team onto the pitch unchanged compared to the 1-1 draw at SC Freiburg. At Leipzig, Dani Olmo and Konrad Laimer initially took a seat on the bench, with Emil Forsberg and Kevin Kampl starting instead.
After a few minutes, the guests took control of the game in the Olympic Stadium, but the first attempts by Timo Werner (4th) and Forsberg (5th) were too harmless. RB pushed the Berliners deep into their half, but kept getting stuck in the ranks of the hosts. Initially, there was little offensive from Hertha, and the capital club could not use the standards either.
But Leipzig couldn’t get through against the compact defending Berliners either, and there were hardly any chances to score. Then things got hectic in the Hertha penalty area: after a corner, Mohamed Simakan jumped up to head the ball, Hertha keeper Oliver Christensen also went for the ball, but lost out against the RB defender, Haidara poked the ball over the line in the turmoil. After a minute-long review by the VAR, the goal was awarded.
Hertha tried to equalize after the break, but found hardly any solutions. But the people of Leipzig also lacked penetrating power. An attempt by Benjamin Henrichs (61st) went over the goal, after a shot by Kevin-Prince Boateng had been blocked on the other side. Substitute Suat Serdar also failed because of RB keeper Janis Blaswich (82nd).
