Lois Openda scored twice in RB Leipzig's emphatic 3-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt to send them into the quarter-finals of the DFB Pokal.
Leipzig snapped a six-game winless run across all competitions, having lost five of those matches including the last three, and bounced back from Saturday's 5-1 Bundesliga home loss to Wolfsburg in style, offering much-needed relief for embattled coach Marco Rose, whose team last won on October 29.
The hosts looked nervous in the opening stages, as Nicolas Seiwald's tame free-kick and Willi Orban's header failed to beat Kevin Trapp.
However, they took the lead through Benjamin Sesko's sublime run and finish in the box after good early work from Antonio Nusa in the 31st minute.
The teenager then delivered the second of his hat-trick of assists with a perfectly timed cutback for Openda to tap in four minutes after the restart, with Frankfurt unable to come back.
Openda then fired in from 20 metres for his second goal of the match, just before the hour mark, as the 2022 and 2023 champions of the DFB Pokal advanced to the last eight on Wednesday.
YEEEESSSS! What a feeling
— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) December 4, 2024
We're through to the quarter-finals
FT | 3-0 | #RBLSGE pic.twitter.com/8DNVvUx6aq
Data Debrief: Leipzig back on track
Leipzig had to wait over a month for this victory to come along, but it could not have come at a better time for Rose's men.
They have now won each of their last 11 DFB-Pokal home games by an aggregate score of 29-4, extending the longest current home winning streak of any team in the competition.
While Openda's brace was key to securing their place in the next round, Nusa's involvement was invaluable - he became the second-youngest player in DFB Pokal history to register three assists in a single match (19 years, 231 days), behind Julian Brandt in 2015 (19y 179 days).