RB Leipzig thrashes Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0 at Red Bull Arena in dominant display

Willi Orbán rattled the crossbar with a header before halftime, and that was about the only scare RB Leipzig had all night in a match that turned into a stroll. 3-0 over Borussia Mönchengladbach at Red Bull Arena, with three goals spread across three different stages of the game and a gap that felt even wider on the field than the scoreline suggests.

The opener came in the 25th minute: Ridle Baku finished with his left foot from the center of the box, low and tight to the post, after an assist from Tidiam Gomis. Gladbach had shown flashes up to that point, with Hugo Bolin and Philipp Sander testing from outside the area, but couldn't really trouble the home goal. Leipzig, on the other hand, kept pressing: Brajan Gruda, Tidiam Gomis and Ezechiel Banzuzi had given warning signs before the goal, and deep into first-half stoppage time Orbán headed against the crossbar off a corner. That post may have been Gladbach's last chance to reach the break with any hope intact.

What followed erased any doubt. Right at the start of the second half, in the 48th minute, Antonio Nusa doubled the lead with a right-footed shot from the center of the box that curled into the top corner, again assisted by Gomis. Leipzig kept pushing: Nusa tried twice more, Willi Orbán and Ezechiel Banzuzi also had close-range attempts, all within a span of just a few minutes. The knockout blow came in the 65th: Rocco Reitz, with Christopher Nkunku already on the field, finished with his right foot from the center of the box to make it 3-0. From there the game was managed out, with substitutions on both sides and a late attempt from Gladbach, like Franck Honorat's shot near full time, that wasn't enough to salvage anything from the night.

A dominance the numbers confirm

Gladbach had more of the ball and completed more passes, but that was pretty much the only category they won.

Twenty-five shots to fifteen, and eleven of them on target compared to just four for Gladbach. Our expected-goals estimate based on the match's shots puts Leipzig at 4.16 xG against 1.28 for Gladbach, a gap that pretty accurately reflects what happened on the field: one team generating danger constantly, the other holding the ball without ever turning it into clear chances.

Before the match we had projected something closer than what actually unfolded: 55% win probability for Leipzig, 24% for a draw and 21% for Gladbach, with expected goals of 1.99 for the home side and 1.17 for the visitors, a total of 3.16. The result went the way the favorite was expected to go, but it undersold the scale of it: three goals to nil went well beyond that preview forecast.

Where it leaves the table

With this result, RB Leipzig sits on 3 points after one match played, with a goal difference of +3, in second place in the Bundesliga. Borussia Mönchengladbach, meanwhile, is left without points and a goal difference of -3 after their first match, still in the lower reaches of a table that is only just starting to take shape. It's only matchday one, so these standings don't mean much yet, but the impression the match leaves is clear: Leipzig was superior for the full ninety minutes, sharp going forward and solid at the back, while Gladbach never found a way to turn their share of possession into anything dangerous.