RB Leipzig’s Christoph Baumgartner (26) lauds ‘perfect’ team core and ‘top talent’ Yan Diomande (19) | OneFootball

The Bundesliga’s Saturday evening “Top Spiel” this weekend was supposed to be a competitive and intriguing affair. Hosting RB Leipzig nevertheless ensured that this was not the case. The German Red Bulls pounded visiting Eintracht Frankfurt into submission, eventually attaining a 6-0 result to ensure their grip on second place in the Bundesliga table. Things are defensively headed in the right direction for RB.

Leipzig’s Austrian midfielder Christoph Baumgartner – now a definitive ‘club man’ thanks to his decision to remain in Germany despite Premier League interest – reflected on how far he and his team had come since a humiliating 6-0 opening day loss away at Bayern Munich. It’s Baumgartner’s Saxons who are now doing the horsewhipping. Leipzig will even get two more cracks at Bayern in the new 2026 calendar year.

Baumgartner thrilled with the cohesion in the team

“It’s important to have a core,” Baumgartner told Sky Germany afterwards. “When you have three guys in midfield who know each other intuitively, one or two guys at the back who always play when they’re fit, and then the wingers on the outside who have incredible quality, then everything falls into place automatically.”

Baumgartner praises young hat-trick hero Yan Diomande

The already highly intriguing story of the 19-year-old mega talent keeps getting more interesting. Diomande’s three goals in the victory gives the four-times-capped Cote d’Ivoire international seven goals and four assists in 15 appearances across all competitions this season. On Saturday evening, the teenage talent became the second youngster Bundesliga player ever to record a hat trick. Only Eintracht Frankfurt’s Walter Bechold (18 years of age in 1965) was younger.

Baumgartner plays behind Diomande in head coach Ole Werner’s 4-1-4-1 system. In his post-match Sky interview, the Austrian made specific reference to his axial partner and what a privilege it was to work with him. After noting that it was his “job to give some of the rest of the guys a swift kick in the ass“, Baumgartner noted that Diomande didn’t really need all that more of a push. Both Baumgartner (one goal and two assists) and Diomande collected three scorer points on the eve. 

“The difference between a good player and a top player is that the top player makes those runs back,”  Baumgartner said. “[Diomande] dropped back ten times [in the match] and won important balls.“

GGFN | Peter Weis