RB Leipzig 3-1 Union Berlin: Bundesliga Match Report
Our record: RB Leipzig · Union Berlin
Final Score
RB Leipzig
3 — 1
Union Berlin
Key Moments
Half-time: RB Leipzig 2-0 Union Berlin
Second half: RB Leipzig 1-1 Union Berlin
Final score: RB Leipzig 3-1 Union Berlin
Post-Match Analysis
Match Summary
RB Leipzig 3-1 Union Berlin was two goals up at the break and shared 1-1 afterwards, which means the visitors got on the board without ever reducing the margin below two. A comfortable home win, and a necessary one for a side in the middle of the only competitive race the Bundesliga had left.
Leipzig went in third on 59 points from 30 matches with a goal difference of +22, three ahead of Stuttgart and five ahead of Hoffenheim in a Champions League argument being decided a point at a time. They had won four of five — 5-0 over Hoffenheim, 2-1 at Bremen, 1-0 against Mönchengladbach, 3-1 at Frankfurt — with a 0-1 at Stuttgart the only defeat.
Union Berlin were 11th on 32 with -18, safe by a margin of six points from the play-off place and with no realistic route upwards. Their recent record contained the result that made this fixture interesting: a 3-1 win over Leipzig in the reverse meeting in December. Since then they had taken four points from five — 1-0 at Freiburg, 0-4 at Bayern, 1-1 at St. Pauli, 1-3 at Heidenheim, 1-2 at home to Wolfsburg.
What It Settled
Leipzig reached 62 points and a goal difference of +24, extending the gap over Stuttgart to six and putting themselves in a strong position with three rounds to go. In a division where Bayern had settled the title in March, third place was the prize actually being contested, and Leipzig had now won five of six.
Union Berlin stayed on 32 with the difference sliding to -20. Their position was secure and their season had nothing left to resolve, which is the honest reading of a club that had beaten Leipzig in December and then won one of their next five. The gap between the clubs went from twenty-seven points to thirty. Neither the result nor the margin will matter to them in May; what they had taken from Leipzig this season was already banked.
Prediction Review
Our pre-match call was RB Leipzig Win at 1.65. It came in, and the price was slightly generous for a third-placed side at home against opposition with nothing to play for. The one argument for caution was the 3-1 in the reverse fixture, and we discounted it on the grounds that Union had won once in five since then and had conceded four at Bayern and three at Heidenheim. That reading held: Union scored, as they usually did, and conceded three, as they had been doing. Verdict: won