Champions League roundup: Red Bulls from Leipzig and Salzburg get wins
RB Leipzig - Celtic 3-1
The start of the contest was frenetic. Reported Chelsea target Nkunku clipped wide from Mohamed Simakan’s cross, shortly before Matt O’Riley was unable to get a shot off after being fed by Reo Hatate at the other end. Leipzig then suffered a serious blow when a misplaced pass from Timo Werner put his goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi under serious pressure, and the Hungarian cleared before going down in pain, clutching his right knee. Play was duly stopped, with Die Roten Bullen’s captain taken off on a stretcher and replaced by Janis Blaswich.
Shortly after his introduction, Blaswich produced an excellent save from Kyogo Furuhashi’s bullet header, before Marco Rose’s men demonstrated their counter-attack prowess in devastating fashion. Callum McGregor was caught in possession by Xaver Schlager on the edge of Leipzig’s box and André Silva sped upfield, holding off the recovering McGregor and squeezing a pass through to Nkunku, who had earlier seen an effort ruled out for offside. This time though, the 24-year-old timed his run to perfection, rounding Hart and sliding home in style despite the desperate efforts of Josip Juranović.
To add insult to injury, McGregor subsequently came off after picking up an injury sustained in the challenge with Schlager as youngster Oliver Abildgaard came on in his place for his Champions League debut, but despite this setback, the second-half response from Ange Postecoglou’s men was emphatic. Hatate released Kyogo and the forward, with a couple of Leipzig defenders at close quarters, waited for the run of Jota to his left before finding the Portuguese attacker, who finished coolly on 48 minutes.
Szoboszlai then struck Hart’s right-hand post following intricate build-up play involving Werner, Nkunku and the Hungarian, and it was a sign of things to come as the 21-year-old thundered home from 20 yards, only for the effort to be controversially chalked off after Silva was deemed to be in Hart’s eyeline. Incredibly though, Hart gave the ball away in the next passage of play to Szoboszlai, who laid it on a plate for Silva to make amends.
The contest was as good as over when Nkunku sprayed out to Simakan and with Celtic’s defence stretched, the right-back cushioned beautifully into the path of Silva, who did the rest from six yards. The reverse fixture at Celtic Park next Tuesday is now do-or-die for the Scottish outfit after picking up just one point from three in Group F, while Leipzig will be hoping Real Madrid beat Shakhtar Donetsk so they can remain within one point of the Ukrainians.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
See all the match details here.
Salzburg - Dinamo Zagreb 1-0
Hoping to register back-to-back H2H victories after winning the last encounter in August 2016 (2-1), the visitors had the clearest opening early on when Philipp Köhn acrobatically tipped Josip Mišić’s long-range strike over the crossbar. However, looking to extend their unbeaten run across all competitions to 12 matches, Salzburg were not without their own chances in front of goal, with Köhn’s opposite number, Dominik Livaković, smothering Luka Sučić’s close-range effort.
In pursuit of a second consecutive qualification for the UCL knockout stages, the Red Bulls were inches away from taking the lead when Nicolás Capaldo agonisingly failed to connect with Benjamin Šeško’s flick-on. However, although the score remained goalless at HT, Ante Čačić would have been the happier of the two managers, given his side provided plenty of attacking threat on their trip to Austria.
The hosts flew out of the traps at the start of the second half as the menacing Sučić initially fired straight at Livaković before Šeško’s commanding header struck the Dinamo number one straight in the face. However, the Croatian outfit were caught napping in the 68th minute when Sadegh Moharrami clumsily brought down Andreas Ulmer in the area. Undeterred by a three-minute delay as VAR reviewed the penalty award, Noah Okafor confidently stepped up to give his side the lead from 12 yards.
With this result, Matthias Jaissle’s side leapfrogged AC Milan at the summit of Group E, at least until after the Rossoneri’s encounter with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge later on, although they needed the offside flag to rule out Josip Drmić’s late equaliser as they picked up the three points. Zagreb, meanwhile, are still in the battle for a knockout spot, but they will need to quickly improve after losing their last two UCL games.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Andreas Ulmer (Red Bull Salzburg)