Rômulo and Diomande lead RB Leipzig to victory in Hamburg

Since the game was played in the unusual Sunday night timeslot, Hamburg fans protested by throwing tennis balls onto the ground at the start of the game. Once the game resumed, they had the first chance through a Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer volley.

Daniel Heuer Fernandes’ first save of the match came from Rômulo Cardoso’s weak effort. Luka Vušković’s delightful chipped ball caused trouble at the other end as Maarten Vandevoordt had to make a superb stop from Damion Downs’ ferocious shot.

The Belgian shot-stopper was unable to stop Fábio Vieira in the middle of the half, though. Castello Lukeba’s misplaced pass was punished by a quick break by the hosts as Arsenal’s loanee scored his fourth Bundesliga goal from an inviting cutback from William Mikelbrencis.

Fifteen minutes later, Lukeba cancelled his mistake with a decisive pass that initiated the equalizing goal. Ridle Baku headed Lukeba’s defense-splitting pass to Rômulo’s direction. With his back to the goal, the Brazilian provided an improvised backheel finish to return to the scoresheet for the first time since starting the year with goals in back-to-back games.

Vandevoordt and Heuer Fernandes made decent saves from Downs and Rômulo, respectively, before the teams went into the half-time break. However, it only took five minutes after the restart for the visitors to take the lead for the first time.

Rômulo was once again at the heart of the action as he dispossessed Fábio Vieira before finding Yan Diomande. The Ivorian still had to slalom through Hamburg’s defenders before slotting home his tenth goal of the season with an emphatic finish.

Despite Vušković’s return from suspension, Hamburg lost their captain Nicolás Copaldo through injury early in the game. And they continued to feel his absence as the visitors created multiple opportunities after their goal. Rômulo was at fault in not converting the easiest chance when his penalty-kick was saved by Heuer Fernandes after a handball from Nicolai Remberg.

Ezechiel Banzuzi also had two golden chances inside five minutes after coming on as a substitute, but his rushed decision and Warmed Omari’s excellent block thwarted the youngster.

It was a very difficult half for Merlin Polzin’s side as Miro Muheim saw his fifth yellow card of the season before Yussuf Poulsen also cautioned for a foul on his long-time teammate Willi Orbán. Since both of their last two games ended 2-2, there was concern about Leipzig seeing out the result, but the hosts were unable to even create a single goal-scoring opportunity. 

Hamburg’s six-game unbeaten run came to an end as they lost both games against Leipzig 2-1 on their return to the Bundesliga. Leipzig are now only two points off third-placed TSG Hoffenheim.

HSV will be in midweek action as their rescheduled fixture against Bayer Leverkusen is set to be played on Wednesday. Leipzig’s next game will see the Champions League hopefuls host an in-form Augsburg side.