Leipzig back into Champions League spot with dominant win over Schalke

FC Schalke 04 (1-3-3, 16th) played host to RB Leipzig (4-0-3, 6th) in the eighth matchweek of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season on Saturday afternoon.

Miron Muslić’s Königsblauen went into this match desperate for a victory to avoid the relegation zone, ahead of only 1. FC Union Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the table. In the last four matches for the Nordrhein-Westfalen side, they have picked up just two points (0-2-2), scoring one goal and conceding three. The Bundesliga has become their main focus, after their DFB-Pokal campaign ended in the second round to SG Dynamo Dresden by an 0-2 result this past Wednesday.

As for Martín Demichelis’ Roten Bullen, they have had relatively shaky results in recent weeks, with a 6-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, a 1-6 defeat to FC Bayern München, and a 4-0 victory over SV Elversberg 07. This, combined with their current UEFA Champions League and DFB-Pokal campaigns, have caused a heavy schedule with consistent midweek matches for the Sachsen side - nearly leading to an elimination from the latter tournament before Christoph Baumgartner rescued his side to a 2-1 win over 3. Liga side Rot-Weiss Essen.

The two sides have met twelve times since Leipzig, founded in 2009, promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in the 2016/17 season. Leipzig are 8-2-2 overall, and have won all of their last five meetings - outscoring Schalke by a 22-3 margin in that span. In the 2023/24 season, the most recent for Schalke in the German top-flight, Leipzig won 6-1 away and 4-2 at home; the last time Schalke won in Leipzig was on 28. September 2019 (3-1), and their last home win against Leipzig was on 19. August 2017 (2-0).

The match kicked off with Schalke, in blue, going left to right, and Leipzig, in red, right to left. The hosts started the match with a 3-3-2-2 formation, but Muslić changed it to a 4-2-3-1 after just one minute - in an attempt to counter the 4-5-1 that Demichelis had prepared.

Leipzig won a free kick after just two minutes, thanks to Brajan Gruda as he was taken down by Hwang Hee-chan. David Raum delivered the free kick far-post, into the right side of the box; Willi Orbán was there and knocked it towards Timo Becker - who accidentally deflected the ball past Loris Karius and into his own net. Assistant official Sascha Thielert raised the flag for offside on the Hungarian international, however - and thus, head official Dr. Max Burda cancelled it.

Schalke would go the other way in the ninth minute, deflecting the ball off Neil El Aynaoui and out for a corner; the following delivery from Adil Aouchiche was blocked, but the ball fell at the feet of Satoshi Tanaka, who dropped it off to Mertcan Ayhan. The 20-year-old hometown talent delivered the ball back into the box, eventually finding an unmarked Junior Adamu - but the header from the Nigeria-born Austria international was not powerful enough and went into the arms of Maarten Vandevoort.

Adamu drew a free kick just four minutes later, pushed to the ground by Rocco Reitz. Aouchiche attempted to curl the ball above Vandevoort on the ensuing set piece, but smashed it off the bar and out. From there, Leipzig quickly went the other way - with an initial chance from Antonio Nusa denied by Karius, and a subsequent header from an unmarked Rômulo going just over the woodwork.

Nine minutes from halftime, Leipzig made their way into the right side of the Schalke penalty area, with Rômulo in possession. Tanaka attempted a sweeping tackle from behind to knock the ball away - but swept the legs of the Brazilian in the process, causing Burda to point to the spot. Karius guessed the side correctly, but his jump was a bit too late, as Nusa powered the ball towards the bottom-left corner with his right boot to open the scoring for the visitors.

Leipzig managed a second just before halftime, but like the Becker own goal that was disallowed, this one also came back quite quickly. The play started with a cross from Raum into the right side of the box from the left side of the Schalke third. The ball landed at the feet of Gruda, whose powerful shot was denied by Karius; the rebound was then tapped in by Rômulo, but Burda cancelled the goal out soon after because the ball went out of play at the moment of Raum’s delivery.

Shots in the opening half finished 7-4 to Leipzig, 3-1 on target with 60 % possession; both sides managed a pass accuracy of 85 %, but Leipzig managed 237 completions and Schalke 185. Touches in the opposing penalty area finished 23-5 to the visitors.

Rômulo attempted to get his goal back on the first chance of the second half, taking the ball from Adamu at the edge of the box and powering a shot past a diving Karius, just wide of the bottom-left corner. Five minutes later, Leipzig connected a series of quick passes on the left side of the Schalke half, with Nusa playing the ball into the left side of the box; Ezechiel Banzuzi was in open space to meet the ground pass, but Karius charged out of his goal and knocked the ball away from the 21-year-old DR Congo international for an eventually unsuccessful corner to the visitors.

For much of the first twenty minutes of the term, Schalke struggled to connect strong passes, taking and then quickly losing possession of the ball. However, in the sixty-third minute, they would see their first chance of the term. Hwang Hee-chan played the ball into the left side of the visiting third to Aouchiche; Henrichs stepped in front just in time to knock it away for a corner. The 24-year-old Algerian international crossed the ball into the centre of the box, aiming far-post, but Vandevoort read the play well and grabbed on with both hands to halt the hosts’ momentum.

There was no significant chance of note for another fourteen minutes; Demichelis made a couple of changes, one of them being the entry of Ridle Baku in place of Benjamin Henrichs in the seventy-sixth minute. Two minutes later, the German right-back began a dangerous counterattack into the right side of the Schalke half. His long ground pass got to Nusa, who then flicked the ball short to his left for Rômulo. Within a fraction of a second, the Brazilian sent the ball past a helpless Karius and into the bottom-right corner to secure a certain victory for the Red Bulls.

Schalke were held off target for the entirety of the second half, and Burda eventually called time on a 2-0 Leipzig victory. With the result, Leipzig moved back up into a UEFA Champions League spot, currently fourth; Schalke, on the other hand, remain in sixteenth, with 1. FC Union Berlin to potentially drop them into the relegation zone with a win or draw against 1. FC Köln tomorrow.

Leipzig held 61 % possession in the second half, while also outshooting Schalke 10-2, 6-0 on target. The visitors managed 17 touches in the opposing penalty area, compared to just 5; and pass accuracy was 87 % to Leipzig on 243 completions, compared to 80 % on 142 for Schalke. Overall, Leipzig outshot Schalke 17-6, 9-1 on target with 60 % possession, and a pass accuracy of 86 % on 480 completions to 83 % on 300. Touches in the opposing penalty area finished 43-10 in favour of the visitors.

RB Leipzig will play both of their next two matches at Red Bull Arena; they face Manchester City FC in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, 21.00 (CET), before taking on FC Augsburg next Saturday at 15.30 (CET). As for FC Schalke 04, they will visit Baden-Württemberg and PreZero Arena to take on TSG 1899 Hoffenheim next Sunday, with kickoff set for 19.30 (CET).