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Haidara and Nkunku propel RB Leipzig past Sandhausen
The African stars were on target as the Red Bulls defeated the second-tier outfit in Saturday’s German Cup fixture
Amadou Haidara and Christopher Nkunku registered their names on the scorer’s sheet as RB Leipzig beat Sandhausen 4-0 in Saturday’s German Cup first-round encounter.
The Bundesliga side put up an impressive display away from home to book their place in the next round of the competition.
Heading into the game, Leipzig played a 1-1 draw with Dutch side Ajax in a pre-season fixture.
For Gerhard Kleppinger’s men, they had lost their last four games in all competitions and were hoping to return to winning ways against Jesse Marsch’s side.
Despite playing away from home, Leipzig dominated all departments of the game. They could have scored more than four goals, but they failed to convert several begging opportunities.
As at the 16th minute, Marsch’s team could have gone two goals up but goalkeeper Patrick Drewes saved Willi Orban and Mohamed Simakan’s headers.
Leipzig’s breakthrough came four minutes later as Orban headed Angelino's cross past Drewes.
A minute before the half time break, Haidara doubled the advantage after profiting from a moment of carelessness from the hosts’ defenders.
Sandhausen started the second half bravely but could not find their way through the defensive line of the visiting team.
France youth international of Congolese descent Nkunku extended the lead for the German elite division side on the hour mark to kill the home team's hopes of launching a comeback.
Not willing to go down without a fight, Kleppinger’s team tried to reduce the scoreline but were denied on two different occasions by Peter Gulacsi who had been rarely tested.
Nine minutes from full-time, Dominik Szoboszlai – who was making his debut - rounded the goalkeeper to complete the victory. Szoboszlai had replaced Haidara in the 78th minute.
Nkunku was in action from start to finish, whereas former England youth international of Nigerian background Ademola Lookman was not listed in the comprehensive win.
On the other hand, Senegalese defender Oumar Diakhite saw every minute of action as well as English-German left-back Chima Okoroji.
Benin Republic midfielder Cebio Soukou was handed a starter's role but was substituted for Alexander Esswein with 14 minutes left on the clock.
Leipzig’s second-round opponents will be announced by the competition’s organiser in September.
