WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) — Xavi Simons scored twice as Leipzig weathered a late comeback to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 in the Bundesliga on Friday and win away from home for the first time this year.
All three goals came from outside the box in a display that put Leipzig's recent bad away run to bed and lifted it into fourth place, equal on points with the team above it, Eintracht Frankfurt.
Click to Gallery
Wolfsburg's Andreas Skov Olsen, right, celebrates scoring with teammates during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons, left, and Wolfsburg's Bence Dardai in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons, second left, celebrates scoring during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Wolfsburg's Kilian Fischer, left, and Leipzig's Lois Openda in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Wolfsburg's Kilian Fischer, left, and Leipzig's Xavi Simons in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates scoring during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's last away win was on Dec. 7, a run of seven winless matches.
Loïs Openda got the scoring started after 11 minutes. Wolfsburg lost possession in front of its own penalty box and Openda rifled a low shot inside the far post.
A defensive mishap led to a similar second 15 minutes later. Leipzig took possession when a defender slipped and Xavi Simons made space for himself on the edge of the box and his low shot beat the goalkeeper in the exact same place.
The third in the second half was the pick of the bunch. Baku teed up Simons nicely and the Dutch international side-footed in a sublime curler from 25 meters out.
Kilian Fischer pulled a goal back for Wolfsburg — becoming the 16th different player to score for the club this season, a club record — and Andreas Skov Olsen brought the home side right back into the game with 16 minutes left.
But it could not find an equalizer and it remains in 12th place, having lost four games in a row.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Wolfsburg's Andreas Skov Olsen, right, celebrates scoring with teammates during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons, left, and Wolfsburg's Bence Dardai in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons, second left, celebrates scoring during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Wolfsburg's Kilian Fischer, left, and Leipzig's Lois Openda in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Wolfsburg's Kilian Fischer, left, and Leipzig's Xavi Simons in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates scoring during the Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday April 11, 2025. (Swen Pf'rtner/dpa via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the U.S. would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio’s statements seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building. They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation.
Meanwhile, a tense calm hangs over Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that deposed Maduro, who was brought to New York to face criminal charges.
Maduro and his wife landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York. The couple face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Here's the latest:
The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay said in a statement that U.S. involvement in Venezuela is “an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and puts the civilian population at risk.”
In a statement released jointly by the governments, they expressed their “concern about any attempt at government control, administration, or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources.”
These actions are “incompatible with international law and threaten the political, economic, and social stability of the region,” they added.
Besides expressing their “deep concern and rejection” of the U.S. operation that ended with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, they called for dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people to resolve the situation, “without external interference and in accordance with international law.”
Associated Press video on Sunday shows a banner now on display in Iran’s capital warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take action in the country.
Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. “will come to their rescue” if Iran kills peaceful protesters has taken on a new meaning after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said adversaries of the U.S. should note that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”
From California to Missouri and Texas, protestors are planning demonstrations Sunday and through the week against President Donald Trump’s military operation and capture of Maduro, which one protest description called “the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.”
Dozens appear to be organized by chapters of Indivisible, a left-leaning group, and many take umbrage with Trump’s plans to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who serves as Senate president pro tempore, posted on X Saturday that Maduro is a narco-terrorist and his drug trafficking resulted in the deaths of too many Americans. He likened the Trump operation to then-President George Bush’s decision in 1989 to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega following his indictment for drug trafficking.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, posted that U.S. military action in Venezuela is unconstitutional and is putting troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” Pritzker wrote.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, posted a statement on X calling the strikes illegal and criticizing Trump for taking action without congressional approval. “The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources,” she wrote.
France’s foreign minister says the departure of President Nicolás Maduro “is good news for the Venezuelans” and called for a peaceful and democratic transition of power.
Jean-Noël Barrot said “Maduro was an unscrupulous dictator who confiscated Venezuelans’ freedom and stole their elections.”
“Then, yes, we pointed out that the method used infringes the principles of international law,” Barrot said about the U.S. military operation on France 2 national television.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but added, “You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened.”
“We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results,” Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Donald Trump’s conversations with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now are ”very matter-of-fact and very clear: You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”
Noem tells “Fox News Sunday” that the United States wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it comes to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country.”
She says that “we’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to back off Trump’s assertions that the U.S. was running Venezuela, insisting instead that Washington will use control of the South American country’s oil industry to force policy changes and, “We expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”
“We’re hopeful, hopeful, that it does positive results for the people for Venezuela,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week.” “But, ultimately, most importantly, in the national interest of the United States.”
Asked about Trump suggesting that Rubio would be among the U.S. officials helping to run Venezuela, Rubio offered no details but said, “I’m obviously very intricately involved in the policy” going forward.
He said of Venezuela’s interim leader: “We don’t believe this regime in place is legitimate” because the country never held free and fair elections.
Venezuela’s capital Caracas was unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around. Convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses were mostly closed.
The presence of police and members of the military across the city was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day and even more so with the days when people protested against Maduro’s government in previous years.
Meanwhile, soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that had been on fire along with at least three passenger buses following Saturday’s U.S. attack.
The Brooklyn jail holding Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.
It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.
Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.
▶ Read more about MDC Brooklyn
Residents look at a damaged apartment complex that neighbors say was hit during U.S. strikes to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle driving toward Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Shoppers line up at a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
