It goes back and forth in a competitive duel at the top of the table. The Werkself recovered from a blow twice. A national player becomes a factor.
A top Bundesliga game that really deserves its name: Bayer Leverkusen fought back to win 3-2 (0-1) at RB Leipzig in stoppage time in the Saturday evening game of matchday 18, despite being behind twice, and extended their lead in the table for the time being.
In a thrilling game, Nathan Tella (47′) and national player Jonathan Tah (63′) were each able to equalize for the Werkself after Xavi Simons (7′) and Loïs Openda (56′) had given Leipzig the lead. Piero Hincapié (90+2) then scored in stoppage time to give the guests the win.
The leaders are now seven points ahead of their pursuer Bayer Munich, who have played two fewer games.
This is how the game went:
After less than ten minutes, Benjamin Šeško Tah danced out and passed briefly to Xaver Schlager, whose cross landed at Simons. The Dutchman didn’t care that he had his back to the goal. He took the ball with his right, turned and moved to the short corner with his left – unstoppable. A minute later, Šeško slid in on a cross from Olmo and the ball whizzed just past the goal.
And Bavarian? Had a plan and a system worth seeing, but had to accept the next setbacks defensively. Tah received his fifth yellow card and will miss next week’s game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. After half an hour it was over for Jeremie Frimpong. The extremely important full-back was supported as he went into the dressing room. Bayer reported a painful blow to the lower leg.
A loss by Frimpong would be extremely bitter for the championship candidate. The Dutch international has scored five goals and seven assists in the league alone and has appeared in every game in the first half of the season. The loss didn’t change much about the game. Leverkusen’s combinations were worth seeing, but the shots were almost exclusively made from afar. Leipzig was waiting for counterattacks and mostly played them through Olmo and Simons – only the return was missing at first.
Leipzig’s renewed lead only lasted briefly
Tella, who came on for Frimpong, took care of that. Bayer cleverly shifted the game to the left side of the attack and created a majority through several passes. Alejandro Grimaldo’s sharp cross rushed through the entire RB penalty area, at the other end of which Tella simply pushed in. National player David Raum seemed quite disoriented and didn’t notice Tella behind him.
The game now picked up even more momentum. Florian Wirtz (55th) failed with a shot past RB keeper Janis Blaswich. After the following corner, Leipzig took the lead again via the stations Simons, Olmo and Openda. It only lasted a few minutes. Tah rose highest after a corner and equalized. Schlager felt fouled during the action, but referee Matthias Jöllenbeck saw it differently.
Both teams neutralized each other until injury time, then Bayer once again showed their set-piece strength. A corner slipped through the penalty area, but Hincapie evaded Schlager and was spot on at the second post – and sprinted across half the pitch, cheering wildly.