Balanced 45 minutes
The game wasn’t a top game, but definitely worth watching. Both teams played bravely forward and were especially dangerous after transitions. The first good chance should have been a goal, but Xavi was denied by Bochum’s substitute keeper Andreas Luthe (3rd). Instead, the 1-0 came shortly afterwards on the other side – albeit with a 25-meter free kick by Maximilian Wittek and with the friendly help of Peter Gulacsi: The RB goalkeeper let the durable ball slide into the goal (7th). After that it continued to go back and forth. And RB deservedly equalized: Dani Olmo welded the ball into the right triangle from 20 m after winning the ball in midfield (30th).
Three important changes
RB approached the second half very slowly and with errors. As a result, Bochum in particular was in the driver’s seat. RB coach Marco Rose once again reacted quite late, but he did so consistently: he replaced almost the entire offensive (Openda, Poulsen, Elmas for Sesko, Baumgartner, Olmo) (65th) and thus provided new offensive power. And for the decision: Openda made it 2-1 after a long pass from Amadou Haidara (68th), Bochum’s Ivan Ordets poked the ball into his own goal after preparatory work by Poulsen and a cross pass from Xavi to make it 3-1 (71st), and Poulsen put the lid on it after another cross pass from Xavi (72′).
However, Bochum didn’t give up even after that, so RB keeper Gulacsi was able to make a brilliant save (header from Anthony Losilla/83.). In the end, VfL player Kwarteng caused people to shake their heads. 15 minutes after his substitution, completely unnecessarily and with no chance of getting to the ball, he knocked over Openda in the RB penalty area and was sent off with a red card (87th).