RBL beat FC Augsburg 3-0!

Three league victories in a row! 

RBL won 3-0 against FC Augsburg on matchday 4 of the Bundesliga at the Red Bull Arena. There was already reason to celebrate before the game, as Péter Gulásci was named on the bench for the first time after sustaining a serious knee injury last October. What's more, the game was an opportunity to celebrate Yussuf Poulsen's ten-year anniversary as an RBL player!

Castello Jr. was straight into the action on his maiden start, as he put in a big tackle to prevent Dion Beljo from getting a shot off. After that, RBL turned up the heat. Emil Forsberg gave the ball to Lois Openda and his cross into the Augsburg box found Xavi, who headed home to put us 1-0 up in the seventh minute. Our starboys switched roles four minutes later, with the goalscorer turning creator and playing a delicate through-ball, which our number 17 latched onto and duly slotted into the bottom-right corner.

Our third goal came in the 27th minute. Once again, everything went through Xavi in the middle of the park and he found Yussuf Poulsen with an outside-of-the-boot pass. The Dane put a low cross for David Raum at the back post and the left-back scored his first RBL goal. Just before the break, Openda almost had his second when he was one-on-one with Augsburg 'keeper Finn Dahmen.

There wasn't much to report from the second half. The visitors shot out of the blocks after the break and almost got one back through Phillip Tietz's header in the 48th minute, but Janis Blaswich was quick to react. They started to get on the front foot a bit more, with Ermedin Demirovic having the biggest chance. However, RBL's goalkeeper was there once again to block his close-range effort. Our boys looked to hit them on the counter, but just couldn't find the final pass.
 

3rd minute: Castello Jr. in the right place at the right time

It was the visitors who looked threatening initially, as they put RBL under pressure right at the start of the game. Demirovic's through-ball found Beljo, who burst into the RBL box, but Castello Jr. was able to stop him from getting a shot off and cleared the ball away for a corner.
 

6th minute: Xavi gives us an early lead!

All of a sudden, we were on the attack. Emil Forsberg injected some pace into the game and played Lois Openda through. Our striker then put an inch-perfect cross into Xavi, whose header was unstoppable!
 

11th minute: Openda makes it two

In the blink of an eye, Leipzig had their second! There was some liquid football in the middle of the park, as the midfielders were knocking the ball around quickly. The ball fell to Xavi; it was his turn to assist Openda. In acres of space, the Belgian slotted the ball coolly into the bottom-right corner.
 

26th minute: Leipzig control the flow of the game

RBL let their opponents back into the game a bit after the wild start to the match, but Augsburg hardly had a sniff thanks to our compact and focused defending.
 

27th minute: Raum scores our third

Once again, everything went through Xavi in the middle of the park and he drove forward with pace. He switched the play to the right-hand side of the pitch, where Yussuf Poulsen ran into some space. The Dane whipped a low cross into David Raum, who was waiting on the far side of the box and got a shot off with his left foot. Goalkeeper Dahmen was there once again, but Raum's strike was too venomous to keep out.
 

40th minute: Openda almost has his second

A hospital pass from Augsburg defender Felix Uduokhai landed directly at Openda's feet and the RBL attacker broke away to find himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Dahmen. However, the Augsburg man correctly guessed where Openda would shoot and got down quickly to prevent a certain goal. Crucially, Lois was put off-balance while trying to get his shot away.
 

48th minute: Great save from Blaswich

FCA began the second half with all guns blazing. Mbabu found some space down the right and his cross found Tietz. Janis Blaswich's flying save meant that he got a strong hand to the striker's well-timed header and his defenders took care of the rest.
 

56th minute: Another stop from Janis!

The visitors looked good on the right-hand side of the pitch with some neat passing and successful challenges. A flat cross into the box found a completely unmarked Demirovic, but Blaswich denied the striker's close range effort with a top-class save.
 

70th minute: Augsburg search for a way back into the game

Things had looked a lot different in the first half; now Augsburg had most of the ball and we were made to play on the counter. FCA primarily tried to find their way back into the game by playing down the flanks, but their efforts were unsuccessful. 
 

75th minute: Sesko's effort goes just wide

RBL had their best chance of the second half after some nice build-up play down the right wing. Benny Henrichs put a fast, low cross into the six-yard box and Benjamin Sesko managed to get on the end of it, but his connection just wasn't good enough. Oh well, he was offside anyway...
 

Bundesliga | RB Leipzig – FC Augsburg

LINE-UPS

RBL: Blaswich – Simakan, Poulsen, Forsberg (64' Carvalho), Openda (64' Sesko), Xavi (76' Baumgartner), Raum (76' Lenz), Castello Jr., Schlager, Henrichs, Kampl (C)

FCA: Dahmen – Pedersen (46' Iago), Pfeiffer, Beljo (46' Tietz), Rexhbecaj, Demirovic, Vargas (82' Jensen), Uduokhai (46' Gouweleeuw), Bauer, Dorsch (45+2' Engels), Mbabu
 

RBL bench: Gulacsi (GK), Lenz, Werner, Seiwald, Baumgartner, Carvalho, Moriba, Sesko, Köhler

FCA bench: Koubek (GK), Gumny, Gouweleeuw, Maier, Tietz, Iago, Jensen, Engels, Cardona
 

GOALS

1-0 Xavi (6'), 2-0 Openda (11'), 3-0 Raum (27')

Officials:

Referee: Sascha Stegemann (Niederkassel)

First Assistant: Christof Günsch (Darmstadt)

Second Assistant: Frederick Assmuth (Köln)

Fourth Official: Florian Lechner (Hornstorf)

Video assistant: Felix Zwayer (Berlin)
 

Attendance
44,746 fans at the Red Bull Arena
 

Kick-off
15:30 CEST