Leipzig started the game with great commitment and had an early 1-0 lead. Yussuf Poulsen, who replaced Benjamin Sesko in the starting line-up, would have scored from 6 m if Kou Itakura hadn’t made a last-ditch effort and deflected the ball past the goal (2′). After 13 minutes, however, the scream of goal echoed through the stadium: Xavi had scored 1-0 after a direct pass from Poulsen (14th). Shortly afterwards, after another pass from Poulsen, he was denied by the strong BMG keeper Moritz Nicolas (18th). The Gladbachers were not without danger, but they usually made mistakes on the penultimate pass. The best chance still belonged to Robin Hack, who tried from 40 m after a bad pass from Leipzig, but missed the goal (44′).
The quality of the game was manageable even after the break. At least there were now more chances because Gladbach became a little more active. And it got strange: In the 58th minute, Xaver Schlager crossed to Lois Openda, who then ran towards Nicolas alone and lobbed over the keeper like in training. Everyone in the stadium thought it was offside – except for Openda himself and the VAR, who gave the thumbs up to make it 2-0. After the supposed preliminary decision, Gladbach stepped up their game again, had great chances (68th/82nd/87th), but had no luck in finishing. RB, on the other hand, didn’t close the bag and failed again and again (73rd/78th) to keeper Nicolas. In the end it was a well-deserved victory for the Leipzig team, but they could only be very cautiously happy.