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Disappointed people from Leipzig, happy people from Gladbach: RBL lost to Borussia despite being outnumbered
Photo: SASCHA STEINBACH / EPA
The two Europa League hopes of the Bundesliga botched their dress rehearsals before the semifinals.
While Eintracht Frankfurt can cope with the 0: 2 (0: 1) defeat against Bayer Leverkusen, the 1: 2 in Mönchengladbach for RB Leipzig could still take revenge: Due to the slip, RB has to let SC Freiburg pass in the table and stands fifth now outside of the Champions League places.
Things got interesting in Mönchengladbach even before kick-off: sports director Roland Virkus confirmed to the streaming service DAZN that national player Matthias Ginter had decided on a new club.
"We spoke briefly and he told me what he's going to do," Virkus said of the defender, who won't renew his contract with the Foals, which expires in the summer.
According to media reports, SC Freiburg is the favorite for a commitment, Ginter would replace Nico Schlotterbeck, who switched to Borussia Dortmund.
Thanks to his teammates, Ginter could switch to a Champions League team in this way: After 17 minutes, Breel Embolo scored after Konrad Laimer Gladbach's Lars Stindl kicked the ball off his foot so unluckily that the Swiss was released in the penalty area.
Against a Leipzig team that had changed five positions compared to the Europa League first leg against Glasgow Rangers, the Gladbachers were surprisingly safe on the ball and didn't allow much.
Only Christopher Nkunku, Leipzig's most dangerous man this season, scored with a shot deflected by Ramy Bensebaini (36'), but Jonas Hofmann put Borussia back in the lead before the break after a nice pass from Embolo (45'+2').
In the second half, the game seemed to tip over in the direction of Leipzig, who found their way into the game better and acted in the majority from the 64th minute: Nico Elvedi, the last man, tried to help himself with a tackle, but only hit Nkunku.
The free kick that was due did not bring RB anything, but Elvedi saw the red card for the emergency brake.
Instead of equalizing, the decision was made in Gladbach's favour: Hofmann's second goal sealed Leipzig's bankruptcy (78th).
The Champions League is still in there for Eintracht Frankfurt – but the Hessians would have to win the Europa League for that.
Oliver Glasner's team isn't about anything in the league anymore, and you could see that in the starting XI: Glasner rotated eight times compared to the 2-1 win at West Ham United on Thursday, Ragnar Ache was his starting XI up front - Debut in the Bundesliga.
The B-Elf of Eintracht defended itself against Bayer with all their might, but the most dangerous scenes always came from Leverkusen.
Paulinho converted an outside instep pass from Moussa Diaby to take the lead (18').
Patrick Schick was offside before the supposed 2-0 lead (34'), but then increased after another VAR check and another assist by Diaby after the break (51').
Eintracht had already made three changes at this point in order to conserve more energy and focus on the second leg against West Ham (Thursday, 9 p.m., TV: RTL).
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