RB Leipzig Beats Schalke 04 With a Penalty, a Controversial VAR Call and a Late Strike

Schalke 04 barely held on for 45 minutes and ended up paying dearly for the effort: RB Leipzig took the Bundesliga points from the VELTINS-Arena with a 0-2 win built on a penalty, a controversial VAR disallowance and a late goal that sealed the result. The hosts, though, held up better than the scoreline suggested for much of the first half, even generating a clear chance through Junior Adamu that could have changed the story.

The script flipped in the 33rd minute, when Satoshi Tanaka brought down Rômulo inside the box for a penalty. Three minutes later, Antonio Nusa made no mistake from the spot, driving a low right-footed shot just inside the left post to make it 0-1. Before that, Schalke had enjoyed their best moment of the half when Adamu forced a low save, and Nusa had also tested the home goalkeeper, who responded well.

The start of the second half brought the most debated moment of the afternoon. Just two minutes after the restart, Rômulo put the ball in the net, but a VAR review chalked off the goal and the score stayed at 0-1. Leipzig kept pushing through Ezechiel Banzuzi and Nusa, who kept testing the goalkeeper, until the reward finally came in the 77th minute: Rômulo, this time with no complaints, finished from the center of the box with his right foot after an assist from Nusa to make it a final 0-2.

A Dominance the Numbers Don't Hide

The gap between the two sides was clear in the stats. Leipzig controlled possession, piled up shots and was far superior in clear-cut chances:

The xG generated in the match, an in-house estimate calculated from shot locations, backs up that sense of visitor dominance: 3.65 for Leipzig compared to just 0.54 for Schalke. Ten shots on target against just one for the hosts tell, in numbers, the same story the scoreline told.

What the Preview Said and What Actually Happened

Ahead of the match, our projection gave Leipzig a 53% chance of winning, with Schalke at 21% and a draw at 26%, with expected goals of 1.77 for the visitors and 1.03 for the hosts. The final result ended up more lopsided on the scoreboard than those figures suggested, though Leipzig's win, which was the most likely outcome, came through without any real scares.

In the standings, the win moves Leipzig into fourth place with 15 points from eight games played (five wins and three losses), nine points clear of Schalke, who sit 16th with 6 points from one win, three draws and four losses. A gap that, based on what was seen at the VELTINS-Arena, comes as no surprise.

The match also leaves a bitter note for Schalke beyond the result: the disallowed goal at the start of the second half could have changed the game had it counted with the 0-1 scoreline still fresh, but VAR ruled it out, and the home side never found the tools afterward to seriously trouble the visiting goalkeeper.