Dominik Szoboszlai scored with two brilliant strikes while Emil Forsberg and Andre Silva got on the score sheet to complete the drubbing.
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Dominik Szoboszlai scored a brace as RB Leipzig thrashed VfB Stuttgart 4-0 at Red Bull Arena on Friday night. It was a complete and dominant performance from the home side. Szoboszlai opened the scoring with a brilliant strike from the edge of the box. Immediately after the break, Emil Forsberg finished a superb team effort before Szoboszlai scored again from a free-kick. Andre Silva completed the drubbing with the fourth goal from the penalty spot. Meanwhile, Stuttgart never got going and failed to create any clear cut chances.
Leipzig were too good for Stuttgart to handle as they created 16 attempts in the first half. Four minutes into kick-off, Forsberg’s low shot from outside the penalty area was parried away by Stuttgart goalkeeper Florian Muller. A few minutes later, Josko Gvordiol easily dribbled past three defenders to get inside the penalty area and delivered a cross, but Muller stood firm to deny the opening goal from close range.
Leipzig’s persistent pressure eventually led to the opening goal as Hungarian midfielder Szoboszlai’s 38th-minute dipping and swerving shot beat Muller and went in at the far post.
Within a minute of restart, Forsberg and Silva combined to extend the lead. Silva’s clever back-heel was collected by the Sweden international inside the box and poked in past Muller to make the score 2-0 for Leipzig.
Forsberg had an impressive game in the middle of the park. He was linking up very well with the forwards and his vision and range of passing was once again very good. Meanwhile, the 29-year-old also tested Muller from long range on a couple of occasions.
The home side’s third goal of the night was a wonder strike from Szoboszlai. The 20-year-old’s flat free-kick sailed past everyone and caught Muller completely flat-footed before landing in the back of the net.
In the 65th minute, Marc-Oliver Kempf handled the ball inside the box, and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Silva stepped up and converted the spot kick.
The win helped Leipzig climb to third in the points table while Stuttgart slipped to seventh. It was Leipzig’s first victory of their Bundesliga campaign after losing their opening game 1-0 to Mainz last week.
Hoffenheim are placed on top of the table courtesy of their 4-0 opening-day win against Augsburg.
Borussia Dortmund who are second in the table will take on Freiburg on Saturday and Bayern Munich host Koln on Sunday.
Meanwhile RB Leipzig head coach Jesse Masch won Bundesliga’s first duel between American coaches as his side got the better of Pellegrino Matarazzo’s Stuttgart.
“It was a super reaction after our defeat last week in Mainz,” Marsch said in German.
“From the beginning, we were clear, precise and good. We wanted to be very intensive, very aggressive against the ball, with the ball. It was really a great performance from us.”
“It wasn’t the deciding factor,” said Matarazzo, whose team routed promoted Greuther Fürth 5-1 in the opening round.
“We were shown our limits today. Leipzig were simply the better team in every aspect.”
