Timo Werner celebrated his new contract by helping RB Leipzig to a 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga yesterday. Werner, who has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich, signed a new deal which will keep him at Leipzig until 2023.
“I am happy about the contract extension and my goal, but most of all I am happy about the win,” Werner told the club’s official TV channel after the game. “It means a lot to me that our fans celebrated so loudly after they announced the extension in the stadium.”
The new contract was announced shortly before kick-off, and the 23-year-old Germany international promptly proved his worth by opening the scoring with a poacher’s finish. With just 10 minutes on the clock, Werner hooked the ball in at the far post after Yussuf Poulsen had flicked it on at a corner.
Poulsen appeared to have decided a tense game in the home side’s favour with a sumptuous volley ten minutes from time. Leipzig, though, had to survive six nervy minutes of injury time after Goncalo Paciencia pulled one back for Frankfurt in the 89th minute.
The win leaves Leipzig in joint second alongside Freiburg with six points from their first pair of games. Wolfsburg have also won two in two after they cruised to a 3-0 win at Hertha Berlin in yesterday’s other game. Hertha had a penalty decision in their favour overturned by VAR in the first minute, and were left furious when Wolfsburg were given a spotkick at the other end shortly afterwards. The home side’s protests of a handball fell on deaf ears, however, and Wout Weghorst stepped up to open the scoring for Wolfsburg. “It’s not up to me to comment on the referee’s decision,” Hertha coach Ante Covic said. “These people are always being judged from every possible angle.”
Josip Brekalo doubled the lead eight minutes from time with a darting run into the box, and Jerome Roussillon smashed in the third in injury time.
German Bundesliga results
RB Leipzig 2 (Werner 10, Poulsen 80) Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (89 Paciencia); Hertha Berlin 0 Wolfsburg 3 (Weghorst 9-pen, Brekalo 82, Roussillon 90+1)
Leipzig’s German forward Timo Werner (second right) celebrates after scoring during the Bundesliga football match against Eintracht Frankfurt in Leipzig, eastern Germany, yesterday. (AFP)
