Timo Werner’s penalty handed RB Leipzig a much deserved 1-0 victory against Tottenham in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie on Wednesday.
The German club dictated the match and grabbed the crucial away goal in the second half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
With the latest injury of Spurs striker Son Heung-min along with that of Harry Kane, Spurs started with Dele Alli and Lucas Moura upfront.
The visitors dominated the match right from the word go as Werner hit the post in the opening two minutes. Spurs responded when Steven Bergwijn saw his curling shot saved by Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.
Werner then had another great chance to help the Germans lead in the match in the 36th minute of the match but Spurs shot-stopper Hugo Lloris saved his close-range effort.
Leipzig were then awarded a penalty just before the hour mark when Ben Davies fouled Konrad Laimer inside the area.
Werner then calmly slotted the penalty into the back of the net to score his seventh goal in the competition this season.
Leipzig almost scored a second moments later from a great counter-attack but Patrik Schick’s shot was saved by Lloris. Angelino burst down the left and Werner’s brilliant dummy left Schick in the clear but Lloris pushed the striker’s shot away.
Spurs were close to an equalizer late on when Gulacsi produced a fine save from a Giovani Lo Celso free-kick. Substitute Erik Lamela forced another save from Gulacsi with a free-kick from a similar position and Lucas Moura sent a header narrowly over the bar as Spurs now head into the Red Bull Arena on March 10 trying to outdo their opponents to progress to the quarter-finals.
Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho said, “One-zero is one-zero. The result is open, it’s as simple as that. We wouldn’t be the first team to lose the first game one-nil and to win the tie away, so why shouldn’t we believe?”
Tottenham returns to Premier League action away to Mourinho’s former side Chelsea in Saturday’s early kick-off. RB Leipzig, meanwhile, travels to Bundesliga rivals Schalke on the same day.
