Looking back on the first half of the season
A review of the opening months of 2022/23
The second half of the season is just around the corner. RB Leipzig kick off the second half of the Bundesliga season on 20th January with a cracker against FC Bayern Munich. Ahead of the resumption next week, we took a look at the season so far, month by month.
JULY
After winning the DFB-Pokal in May, RB Leipzig’s season kicked off with the opportunity to win another piece of silverware in the DFL Supercup against Bayern Munich. Despite a disappointing start that saw them 3-0 behind, the Red Bulls fought back to 4-3 thanks to goals Marcel Halstenberg, Christopher Nkunku and Dani Olmo. Unfortunately, Domenico Tedesco’s team couldn’t level the game and fell to a 5-3 defeat at the Red Bull Arena.
AUGUST
After being the best team in the second half of the last season and the return of record goalscorers Timo Werner, expectations were high for the new campaign. However, draws against VfB Stuttgart (1-1) and 1. FC Köln (2-2) were followed by a 2-1 defeat against 1. FC Union Berlin and Tedesco’s side found themselves in 12th position after three games.
The first win of the season was a 2-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg and Timo Werner scored a hat-trick in the 8-0 win against FC Teutonia 05 Ottensen in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.
SEPTEMBER
September got off to a bad start as Leipzig suffered their largest defeat of the season to date with a 4-0 loss away to Eintracht Frankfurt, while the opening game of the Champions League ended in a 4-1 defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk. The club parted ways with head coach Domenico Tedesco, the 36-year-old who had been involved in a major part of the most successful season in RB Leipzig history. Tedesco brought the club its first piece of major silverware in the form of the DFB-Pokal and also took his side to the semifinals of the Europa League. Leipzig native Marco Rose was appointed as his successor.
Rose’s first game in charge was against his former employers, Borussia Dortmund. Goals from Willi Orban, Dominik Szoboszlai and Amadou Haidara gave RBL a 3-0 win and got the Rose era off to a flyer. The good times didn’t come immediately, though. An unlucky 2-0 defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League was followed by a 3-0 loss against Borussia Mönchengladbach. An international break at the end of the month allowed Rose some time to really get to grips with his new team, and the results came.
OCTOBER
October saw an impressive Champions League run. A dampener on wins over Celtic (3-1, 2-0) was the ACL injury suffered by captain Péter Gulácsi in the first fixture, but Joško Gvardiol and Christopher Nkunku each found the back of the net to fire Rose’s team to a 2-0 lead within at the Red Bull Arena against Real Madrid. The defendeing champions pulled one back before Timo Werner increased the lead to 3-1 and helped his side secure a 3-2 win.
Things turned around in the Bundesliga too. Christo and Timo each scored a brace in the 4-0 win over VfL Bochum, before a 3-2 win over Hertha BSC was followed by a 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen.
In the DFB-Pokal, the team picked up where they left off in the first round. Second-division side Hamburger SV were the second-round opposition at the Red Bull Arena on 18th October. Yussuf Poulsen enjoyed a brace on his return from injury as the Red Bulls ran out 4-0 winners.
NOVEMBER
To crown the good work in the Champions League, Marco Rose’s side needed at least a point to secure qualification to the next round in their final group stage game against Shakhtar. Goals from Nkunku, Silva and Szoboszlai as well as an own goal helped RBL to a 4-0 victory and a ticket to the knockout round. The victory came at a price, however: Timo Werner suffered a syndesmosis injury and was ruled out of the World Cup in Qatar.
Leipzig were into the European places in the league table and wanted to end as successfully as possible ahead of the winter break. They did this impressively, defeating direct rivals for continental qualification TSG Hoffenheim and SC Freiburg each by 3-1 scorelines. The win against Freiburg was the team’s fifth victory in a row, while head coach Marco Rose celebrated eight wins from eight home games. On the pitch, Christopher Nkunku and Dominik Szoboszlai were leading the way. Christo’s 12 goals is a league high, while Domi sits second in the assists table with seven.
