Eintracht Frankfurt arrived in Leipzig after the international break hoping for a test. What they got was a humiliation. RB Leipzig won 6-0 on Saturday, and the tone was set before the visitors had touched the ball in anger: Ezechiel Banzuzi scored inside the opening minute.
Christopher Nkunku then took over. The French forward made it two in the fifth minute after Antonio Nusa muscled past Nnamdi Collins and pulled the ball back for him. Frankfurt goalkeeper Noah Atubolu made several decent saves in the first half, but twice he could only parry the ball into Nkunku’s path, and the striker punished him both times in the space of three minutes shortly before the interval. That first-half hat-trick lifts Nkunku’s Bundesliga tally to 51. He was given a warm ovation when he went off after 64 minutes.
Two tweaks by Martín Demichelis paid off. Still smarting from a defeat in Leverkusen before the international pause, the Leipzig coach recalled centre-back Castello Lukeba and handed Andrija Maksimović a maiden Bundesliga start. Neither looked out of place. Nusa, perhaps the liveliest player on the pitch, added a fifth after the restart, nutmegging Collins before driving in a shot at the near post. Substitute Tidiam Gomis rounded it off late on a breakaway.
Frankfurt boss Adi Hütter made a double substitution at the break, with Ebnoutalib and Baum coming on, but nothing changed. The scoreline flatters Leipzig only slightly. The visitors created openings for Jonathan Burkardt, Ritsu Doan, Ansgar Knauff and Can Uzun, and Leipzig keeper Maarten Vandevoordt had to stay sharp to protect his clean sheet. The expected-goals figures, about 4.0 to 1.4, tell the story of a lopsided afternoon.
For Frankfurt, it is a result that will raise uncomfortable questions in the coming week.
