At Sturm, Niklas Geyrhofer replaced Emanuel Aiwu in central defense, while Säumel once again put his trust in Malic at right back. In attack, Seedy Jatta, who had been struggling of late, played, while Amady Camara was on the bench. For Leipzig, Nicolas Seiwald played on the right in the back three and Christoph Baumgartner as a hanging midfielder. This meant that there were more Austrians in Leipzig's starting line-up than in Sturm's.

Graz kept the game open in front of 26,851 spectators - a record crowd for a Sturm European Cup home game - in the early stages, with Leipzig only getting into the game better after around a quarter of an hour. Evidence of this was a shot by Yussuf Poulsen, which Sturm goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen defused with a brilliant save (16'). Leipzig had more of the play in this phase, but were not really dangerous. With the exception of a shot by Malick Yalcouyé (30') that was tamed by Maarten Vandevoordt, Sturm initially had nothing to offer in attack either.

Malic scores at the second attempt
That changed in the 42nd minute - William Böving delivered a corner to the middle, Tochi Chukwuani headed over and Malic was free to score from close range. Vandevoordt was able to fend off the Bosnian teenager's first attempt, but Leipzig's goalkeeper was powerless against the second.

Shortly before the break, Baumgartner missed a great chance to equalize. Austria's star footballer set up Lutsharel Geertruida on the counter-attack. His attempt was blocked by Scherpen, but Baumgartner fired the follow-up shot over the goal from a few meters out (44').

The home side continued to keep the German Bundesliga side under control after the break and were even celebrating when William Böving supposedly made it 2-0 in the 64th minute. However, the Ukrainian referee Mikola Balakin rightly took the goal back after a VAR review because Jatta had punched Willi Orban in the face beforehand.

Leipzig's triple substitution failed to turn the game around
A short time later, RB coach Marco Rose made a triple substitution, bringing on Xavi Simons, Benjamin Sesko and David Raum for Baumgartner, Seiwald and Poulsen. Despite the introduction of three new players, Leipzig were unable to turn the game around. Sturm defended skillfully and repeatedly showed courage in forward play. As a result, they collected another prize of 2.1 million euros and finished the competition ahead of the Saxons (32nd).

The result:
SK Sturm Graz - RB Leipzig 1:0 (1:0)
Klagenfurt, Wörthersee Stadion, 26,851 spectators, SR Balakin/UKR

Goal: 1:0 (42.) Malic

Yellow cards: Lavalée, Jatta, Säumel (coach) and Haidara

Storm: Scherpen - Malic, Geyrhofer, Wüthrich, Lavalée - Gorenc Stankovic (86. Hierländer), Chukwuani - Yalcouyé, Kiteishvili - Jatta (74. Camara), Böving (94. Zvonarek)
Leipzig: Vandevoort - Seiwald (65. Simons), Orban, Bitshiabu (72. Lukeba) - Geertruida (84. Klostermann), Haidara, Vermeeren, Nusa - Baumgartner (65. Raum) - Poulsen (65. Sesko), Openda

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