Schalke suffered a rare home defeat in the league this season as Leipzig hammered the Royal Blues 5-0 at the Veltins Arena. Only defending champions Bayern had beaten David Wagner’s men in Gelsenkirchen prior to this game, with the home side also boasting of one of the defensive records in the competition, but it all went pear-shaped for them as Julien Nagelsmann’s men produced a masterclass, both defensively and offensively.
Before that meeting against FCB at the Allianz Arena in January, Schalke were only three points behind the Bavarians in the league table. After being hammered 5-0 by Hansi Flick’s men, they suffered a dip in form and are now a whopping 13 points behind Bayern. Even worse, they’ve scored only one goal in their last five games and three of those were against Mainz, Hertha and Paderborn, all teams in the bottom half of the league table and flirting with the drop zone.
Dip in form- The table before Schalke’s loss to Bayern, and now
The game started on the worst possible note for Schalke- Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer let one fly from distance after just 55 seconds, and S04 goalkeeper Alexander Nubel, who will join Bayern in the summer, made an absolute mess of what should’ve been a routine save. Nubel’s nervousness seemed to spread to the rest of the squad, and Schalke, despite playing on home turf, were unable to register even a single shot on goal at half time.
Leipzig were excellent in their 1-0 win over Tottenham in midweek in London. They could and should’ve won by more against Jose Mourinho’s side. Their manager, Julian Nagelsmann, is very highly rated domestically and many think it is a question of when rather than if, that RBL will win silverware. At this stage, they’re only one point behind Bayern and have a favourable set of fixtures ahead- check out this offer if you fancy Die Roten Bullen to win their maiden league title this season. Leipzig currently have fewer league losses than Bayern, have let in fewer goals, and are almost matching them in their attacking prowess.
As mentioned earlier, Nagelsmann was disappointed with the margin of victory against Spurs, feeling that the scoreline didn’t reflect his side’s dominance. There was no such problem against Schalke though as his side hammered four more goals after the interval. All of them came from different goal scorers, including one for Timo Werner that broke his 427 minute goal drought, and one for Angelino- the first for his new club from the former Man City left back. The game also saw a new record set by Christopher Nkunku, who became the first player to assist four or more goals in the same game in Europe’s top five leagues (ENG/FR/DE/ITA/ESP) this season.
Nagelsmann has said he looks up to Pep Guardiola, and Leipzig’s style of play this season has certainly won them some admirers. Silverware this season, especially in the form of the German title, could potentially fast track a move to the Premier League for the 32 year old, who is regarded as one of the sharpest minds in world football currently.
