Sesko, Simons score as Leipzig rise to fourth

Benjamin Sesko and Xavi Simons scored first-half goals as RB Leipzig beat St Pauli 2-0 on Sunday to climb to fourth in the Bundesliga table.

The duo assisted each other’s goals as Leipzig secured their first league win in almost a month.

Simons put Sesko into space on the counter-attack, before the latter calmly cut inside a defender and slotted the ball into the bottom corner to give the hosts a 16th-minute lead.

The Slovenian has now scored in six of his past eight league matches.

Sesko returned the favour 10 minutes before half-time, pulling the ball back for Simons to fire home from inside the area.

Xavi, who missed two months with an ankle injury, now has three goals and three assists in six Bundesliga games since his return.

The hosts were able to close out the win despite the 69th-minute sending off of captain Willi Orban for a last-man foul on St Pauli’s Elias Saad.

Leipzig now sit one point clear of fifth-placed Stuttgart, with Freiburg two points further adrift in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League..

“Very dominant first half,” Leipzig coach Marco Rose said. “Things developed a bit differently after the red card.
“A decent performance and a deserved victory.”

Promoted St Pauli still sit seven points clear of the relegation play-off place with 13 games remaining.

Earlier, two goals in three first-half minutes from Myron Boadu took Bochum to a 2-2 draw at Holstein Kiel in a basement clash.

Kiel took the lead after less than three minutes, Steven Skrzybski converting a penalty awarded for a handball.
Boadu, who scored a second-half hat-trick against Leipzig in January, dragged bottom club Bochum back into the match, scoring in the 37th and 39th minutes.

The hosts hit back five minutes into the second half thanks to a David Zec header.

With 15 minutes remaining, Lewis Holtby finished off a superb team move and appeared to have given Kiel the lead, but the goal was disallowed following a VAR review for a foul.

The draw leaves Kiel in 17th, five points from guaranteed safety, with Bochum a further two points back.