Last year’s runners up in the Bundesliga Borussia Dortmund beat RB Leipzig thanks to a header from Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in front of 81,360 spectators. The victory provided the home side with the revenge they were craving after losing the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Leipzig remain in second place despite this defeat as the gap between the two sides remains at eight points.
RBL were without four key players for this game. Timo Werner, Marcel Sabitzer, Diego Demme (all out with a flu) and Emil Forsberg (suspended after a red card) had all contributed a total of 21 goals and 20 assists to their side this season. Davie Selke made a rare appearance in the starting XI as a result while Rani Khedira and Dominik Kaiser were also given starts. They had a lot to do in defence as BVB piled on the pressure, but Leipzig put up a passionate resistance to the Dortmund attack from the very first minute. Both sides’ resilience meant that the first 30 minutes provided few goalscoring opportunities.
Joachim Löw was in attendance and he will have had a good view of Erik Durm in right midfield. Dembélé and Marco Reus could not break down the clearly well-organised away team. Dembélé then raced forward down the line and put in a nice cross to Aubameyang but he could only head over the crossbar. However the Frenchman finally cracked the Leipzig defence not long afterwards, sprinting past Marvin Compper and beating Willi Orban before finding Aubameyang’s head perfectly with a cross. The striker made no mistake and headed home to register his 17th goal of the season.
Dortmund could have doubled their lead soon after the break. Aubameyang failed to take advantage of a counterattack but Reus was played in to a one-on-one with goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. However the Germany international could not find the target to give his team what would have been a comfortable lead. Aubameyang himself then missed a golden opportunity eight minutes later. The second goal continued to elude Dortmund as Reus too missed two superb chances to finish.
Leipzig battled but Yussuf Poulsen and Selke struggled to make a real impact without getting the required service up top. Yet the away side thought they had found an last-gasp equaliser after Oliver Burke played through Palacios. The Spaniard coolly finished to spark wild celebrations from the RBL squad, but the linesman had his flag up and it was ruled offside. The referee blew the final whistle seconds later to call time on what was a thrilling Bundesliga encounter.
Last year’s runners up in the Bundesliga Borussia Dortmund beat RB Leipzig thanks to a header from Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in front of 81,360 spectators. The victory provided the home side with the revenge they were craving after losing the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Leipzig remain in second place despite this defeat as the gap between the two sides remains at eight points.
RBL were without four key players for this game. Timo Werner, Marcel Sabitzer, Diego Demme (all out with a flu) and Emil Forsberg (suspended after a red card) had all contributed a total of 21 goals and 20 assists to their side this season. Davie Selke made a rare appearance in the starting XI as a result while Rani Khedira and Dominik Kaiser were also given starts. They had a lot to do in defence as BVB piled on the pressure, but Leipzig put up a passionate resistance to the Dortmund attack from the very first minute. Both sides’ resilience meant that the first 30 minutes provided few goalscoring opportunities.
Joachim Löw was in attendance and he will have had a good view of Erik Durm in right midfield. Dembélé and Marco Reus could not break down the clearly well-organised away team. Dembélé then raced forward down the line and put in a nice cross to Aubameyang but he could only head over the crossbar. However the Frenchman finally cracked the Leipzig defence not long afterwards, sprinting past Marvin Compper and beating Willi Orban before finding Aubameyang’s head perfectly with a cross. The striker made no mistake and headed home to register his 17th goal of the season.
Dortmund could have doubled their lead soon after the break. Aubameyang failed to take advantage of a counterattack but Reus was played in to a one-on-one with goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. However the Germany international could not find the target to give his team what would have been a comfortable lead. Aubameyang himself then missed a golden opportunity eight minutes later. The second goal continued to elude Dortmund as Reus too missed two superb chances to finish.
Leipzig battled but Yussuf Poulsen and Selke struggled to make a real impact without getting the required service up top. Yet the away side thought they had found an last-gasp equaliser after Oliver Burke played through Palacios. The Spaniard coolly finished to spark wild celebrations from the RBL squad, but the linesman had his flag up and it was ruled offside. The referee blew the final whistle seconds later to call time on what was a thrilling Bundesliga encounter.
