Baumgartner on Leipzig success despite injuries: “All this crap has brought us closer together.”

RB Leipzig trainer Marco Rose’s injured-reserve continues to swell. Last week’s confirmation that pivotal attacker Xavi Simons would miss the rest of the calendar year was followed up by news that keeper Peter Gulacsi and striker Loïs Openda wouldn’t be available for Tuesday evening’s DFB Pokal fixture due to respective issues with their knees.

Despite this, the German Red Bulls – who are already missing David Raum, Xaver Schlager, Nicolas Seiwald, and Assan Ouedraogo – managed to make rather short work of second round domestic cup opponents FC St. Pauli last night. Before twenty minutes had been played, RB third-stringers Yussuf Poulsen and Christoph Baumgartner gave the Saxons a 2-0 lead.

Danish veteran Poulsen ended up scoring a brace. Baumgartner set up Poulsen’s second before the first-half was out. Though Alexander Blessin’s Kiezkicker were able to secure a pair of tallies themselves, the highly effective Antonio Nusaslapped a deserved 4-2 lid on the affair near the end. Baumgartner summarized the team’s feeling on the match in his post-match interview.

“We let them get close, but the victory was never under any serious threat,” Baumgartner said, “It’s a testament to the high level of individual quality we have in the team. We have an incredibly broad and talented roster. Maybe it’s not large, but everyone wants to prove themselves off the bench.”

A 3-4-3 spearheaded by Baumgartner (Ordinarily an attacking midfielder), Poulsen (generally considered an emergency deployment at this point), and André Silva (thought to be on the move away from the club in January due to the competitive situation) performed remarkably well. Baumgartner revealed that his Austrian compatriot Xaver Schlager delivered an inspiring team talk in the locker room prior to kickoff last night. 

“All the [injury] crap that’s happened in the last few weeks has brought us closer together,” Baumgartner said, “[Xaver Schlager] said be happy that you’re fit and able to stand on the pitch. If we manage to bring our energy and our cohesion to the pitch in Dortmund, then I’m sure we can win there too.”