RB Leipzig’s women’s football team celebrated their first Bundesliga win. On Friday evening, the promoted team beat SGS Essen 3:2 (2:1).

In front of 1164 spectators, Natascha Kowalski had given the Essen women the lead with a directly converted free kick after six minutes. Vanessa Fudalla (15) levelled the score with a lob from 16 metres, before Frederike Kempe (23) turned the game in RB’s favour after a Fudalla corner kick was blocked too short. After the break, Fudalla (77) took advantage of a positioning error by Sophia Winkler in the Essen goal to make it 3:1. Ramona Maier scored the equaliser in the seventh minute of injury time.

Leipzig missed the first quarter of an hour. Essen dominated the ball and the opponents, had the more mature play and was always dangerous. At 0:1, RB goalkeeper Elvira Herzog looked just as bad as Essen’s Winkler at the equaliser. This changed the balance of power, even though both RB goals were rather coincidental. Essen needed some time to recover, but still had good chances to score a second goal before the break with a shot against the post by Laura Pucks (18th) and a shot by Maier (38th) that was saved by Herzog.

Essen had more of the game after the break, but chances remained scarce for a long time. RB concentrated on defending their narrow lead and tried counter-attacks, which were often poorly played. On the other hand, the defensive behaviour was first-class. With the third chance of the game, RB made it 3:1.