Draw against Leipzig: Jena hopes to stay in the league

The FC Carl Zeiss Jena women's footballers have renewed hope of staying in the Bundesliga. Thanks to a dream goal from Joker Isabella Jaron, the bottom club in the table drew 1:1 (0:1) in the East derby against RB Leipzig in their own stadium at the start of the 22nd matchday despite being outnumbered.

Lisa Baum (22nd minute) scored the Leipzig goal to the cheers of numerous fans. Jaron (81), who came on as a second-half substitute, converted a direct free-kick from long range to draw the game level. Jena's Felicia Sträßer had previously been sent off with a yellow card in the 63rd minute.

Jena too harmless

The draw means that Jena have made up one point on the first non-relegation place with four matchdays to go in the season, but are now four points behind. Leipzig remain in tenth place.

"It's simply the case now that we have to score points in every game. We finally have to get going on Friday evening - we only have five games left," said Jena coach Florian Kästner before the match about the relegation battle. His team were committed for long stretches, but were often too harmless in front of Leipzig's goal - apart from Jaron's stroke of genius.

Jaron misses chance to equalize

Kästner, who was back on the sidelines following his suspension in the last home game against VfL Wolfsburg, had to make do without Lisa Gora (foot injury), Hannah Mesch and Fiona Gaißer (back in training) and Steffi Schmid (5th yellow card). Nevertheless, the hosts managed to increase the pressure in the second half by pressing hard. Jaron also missed the best chance until the equalizer in the 58th minute.

The draw means that RB Leipzig have not lost in seven games since the 3-0 defeat at champions and league leaders FC Bayern Munich at the start of the year. Leipzig had won 2-0 against Jena in the first half of the season. The absence of midfielder Lou-Ann Joly due to an ankle injury was hardly noticeable in the generally confident performance at Jena's Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld. However, the RB players missed too many good scoring opportunities and therefore had to live with the draw.