RB Leipzig’s Champions League misery ended with defeat against Sturm Graz

RB Leipzig bow out of the Champions League with a defeat at Austrian Bundesliga leaders Sturm Graz.

RB Leipzig ended their Champions League campaign with seven defeats after yet another loss in Sturm Graz. Marco Rose’s side finished the extended group stage in 32nd place, out of 36 teams. Having beat Girona by the same scoreline in December, Sturm closed out their European adventure with back-to-back home wins against top-five league teams.

Rose rested key players in his side’s last European game of the season. Ahead of Saturday’s clash against Union Berlin in Germany’s capital, Die Roten Bullen are on a three-game winless streak in Bundesliga. Meanwhile, they had no chance of progression to the Champions League knockout stages.

David Raum, Xavi Simons and Benjamin Šeško only made the bench against the Austrian Bundesliga champions. In contrast, Jürgen Säumel had his strongest team on the field with no domestic football to deal with so far in 2025.

The guests dominated the proceedings, but Kjell Scherpen was equal to the best efforts of Antonio Nusa and Lutsharel Geertruida in the first-half. Instead, Sturm Graz took the lead three minutes before the break from a corner-kick.

William Bøving’s delivery was flicked on by Tochi Chukwuani to the path of Arjan Malic in the far post. On his fifth appearance for the club, the 19-year-old Bosnian center-back beat Maarten Vandevoordt to put the hosts in front.

Thanks to Christopher Baumgartner’s quick feet, Leipzig started the second-half strong, but the Brighton loanee was on the top of his game between the sticks. Scherpen was even involved when Bøving doubled Sturm’s advantage before VAR chalked off the goal due to a foul in the buildup by Seedy Jatta.

Ukrainian referee Mykola Balakin booked Säumel for protesting the decision. His counterpart Rose quickly reacted with triple changes to introduce Raum, Simons and Šeško for the final half hour of the match.

But the former RB Salzburg coach didn’t get the desired effect from his star players. Leipzig struggled to even carve out a single chance for the rest of the match. In what was a disappointing campaign, Leipzig failed to keep a clean sheet in all eight games. Furthermore, they lost all four matches away from home.