Thanks to Gruda: Leipzig Secures Important Victory in the Champions League

RB Leipzig can count on its home-field advantage in the Champions League as well. 629 days after its last victory in the Champions League—a 2-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in January 2025—coach Martín Demichelis’s team defeated PSV Eindhoven 1-0 (0-0). It was their first win in the group stage following a disastrous opener against Como (1–4). Brajan Gruda scored the decisive goal in the 75th minute with a curling shot.

Argentine RB coach Demichelis—dressed in a sharp suit with a shirt, tie, and jacket, all in black—brought only Gruda into the starting lineup in place of Andrija Maksimovic after the 6–0 win over Frankfurt, as Gruda had recovered from an abdominal muscle injury. His team got off to a strong start in front of 43,187 spectators.

National team player Ridle Baku tested former Leverkusen goalkeeper Matej Kovar with a shot from close range (4th minute); at the other end, RB goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt made a save from a tight angle against Sven Mijnans (8th minute).

Vandevoordt saves Perišić’s handball penalty

Then Scottish referee Nicholas Walsh received a heads-up from his VAR colleague. After reviewing the TV footage himself, he awarded a penalty because Baku had been struck on the back of his outstretched arm by the ball during a header duel with Ruben van Bommel.

The 37-year-old Ivan Perišić, who once played in the Bundesliga for Dortmund, Wolfsburg, and Bayern Munich, took the ball and shot it toward the center of the goal. The Belgian Vandevoordt dove toward the corner but was still able to make the save with his foot (19th minute). Now it was the game PSV coach Peter Bosz had anticipated. “Fight fire with fire—I’m expecting a spectacle,” the former Dortmund and Leverkusen player had announced.

Chances on Both Sides

Leipzig grew stronger and created good scoring opportunities. But Gruda, who brilliantly beat Armando Obispo on the right side of the box and then aimed for the near post, was once again denied by Kovar (39'). In stoppage time of the first half, Gruda once again danced his way through half the penalty area, passing back to the unmarked Neil El Aynaoui—but the RB newcomer blasted the ball well over the goal. 

After the break, Kovar (47') once again prevented Leipzig from taking the lead against Antonio Nusa. Three minutes later, RB got lucky when Mijnans, in a prime position following a pass from van Bommel, completely missed the target. Both teams struggled to convert their chances. However, both goalkeepers were wide awake in this lively match. And when the goalkeepers were beaten, the strikers missed—like Leipzig’s returning player Christopher Nkunku (68th minute) from five meters out.

Gruda (75th minute) finally tried his luck from distance and got lucky. His shot from the edge of the penalty area was deflected by Perišić, making it unstoppable for Kovar, and found the corner for a 1-0 lead. PSV briefly celebrated the equalizer, but Obispo’s goal (82') was disallowed for offside. 

Schmidt at the stadium for the first time as RB head

For Roger Schmidt, the new head of soccer at the Red Bull Group, it was his inaugural visit to the Leipzig stadium—and a reunion with Dutch friends. “It was a great time; it is and always has been an incredibly good club where you feel very at home—we even won two titles back then,” Schmidt said in a DAZN interview before the match.

The former RB Salzburg coach himself managed PSV from 2020 to 2022 before his stint at Benfica Lisbon. And he was in even better spirits after the game than he was before.