4-1 - Werkself up to fourth

"Games like that are fun. We deserved to win today and we improved over the course of the game," declared the outstanding Julian Brandt after the final whistle. Kai Havertz said: "I didn't hit the ball perfectly for the 1-1 but it didn't matter. The main thing is it went in. We played really well over the 90 minutes. You could see on the pitch that Leipzig didn't have much a chance tonight."

Heiko Herrlich made two changes to the side that faced Augsburg. The skipper Lars Bender returned to side after injury in place of Panos Retsos. Havertz came in for Dominik Kohr. The boss opted for a 3-4-3 formation.

Both teams started the game at high tempo. The Werkself were on top in the opening minutes. An early Leverkusen counter-attack on two minutes ended with the Leipzig defence making a last-ditch intervention to prevent Kevin Volland laying the ball off to Julian Brandt and that was soon followed by Julian Baumgartlinger having the first real chance with a header from a flick-on by Jonathan Tah forcing the RB keeper Peter Gulacsi into a reflex save on four minutes. Another break down the left flank petered out when Brandt failed to make the final pass. The Black and Reds were up to speed and they put the hosts under pressure early on.

Sabitzer gives Leipzig the lead

Leipzig then started to pose more of a threat up front. A Timo Werner shot was turned away for a corner by Tah on 10 minutes and Naby Keita hit a shot from just inside the box five minutes later. Marcel Sabitzer showed his team-mates the way on 17 minutes when he converted a Yussuf Poulson pass from the edge of the penalty area to give Leipzig a 1-0 lead. To make matters worse, Sven Bender then went off injured almost straight after the goal was conceded. He went over on his left foot and was replaced by Retsos with the Greek playing at right-back and Tah moving into the middle.

Bayer 04 were undaunted after going 1-0 down and pressed for the equaliser. Brandt just failed to connect with a Havertz cross on 27 minutes. The Germany international was through on Gulasci just after the half-hour mark but the keeper saved with his foot as Brandt hit the ball with the outside of his foot. A great save.

Havertz LEVELS in counter-attack

The match was being played at an extremely high tempo at this point. Leipzig had further chances with long-range efforts from Emil Forsberg (34'), Kevin Kampl (35') and Sabitzer (37'). Tah did well in an attack by the hosts by making a last-ditch tackle to deny Poulsen as he was about to shoot at the expense of a corner. The deserved leveller for the Werkself came at the end of high-speed counter-attack: Lars Bender picked out Leon Bailey  who broke down the right before passing to Havertz and he volleyed into the back of the net from 16 yards out on 45 minutes. An impressive finish  to round off a top performance by both teams in the first half. "I'm excited about this game. It's a great advert for the Bundesliga," raved Matthias Sammer on Eurosport.

Brandt scores and provides two

The second half kept up the frenetic pace. Forsberg and Aránguiz clashed in the box with Forsberg hitting the deck and claiming a penalty but the referee Deniz Aytekin awarded a goal kick to Leverkusen. The tables were rapidly turned with Bernd Leno's kicked finding Havertz who moved the ball onto Kevin Volland who, in turn, passed to Brandt on the edge of the box and the Werkself number ten did not hesitate as he struck a low drive into the bottom right corner to make it 2-1 for the Werkself six minutes after the restart. And Bayer 04 did not relax. First, Bailey put a shot just wide from a Brandt cross on 55 minutes before Retsos was in the right place from a free-kick from the outstanding Germany international and Panos made no mistake from six yards out to the Werkself a 3-1 lead on 56 minutes. It was the fist Bundesliga goal for the Greek. This double whammy from the Black and Reds had an effect on the hosts. At the same time, everything was going like clockwork for the Werkself. The only downside was a second injury on the night for Leverkusen. Wendell went down in a challenge and he was replaced by Benny Henrichs.

milestone for Volland

Just after coming on Henrichs was able to celebrate a fourth goal with his team-mates. Once again, it was the unstoppable Brandt breaking into the box from the right who provided a pin-point pass to Volland and the striker made it 4-1 to seal the result on 69 minutes. It was the eleventh goal of the season for Volland and goal number 50 for him in the Bundesliga.

Leno made two saves in the closing stages of the game. The Werkself number one threw himself into a full-blooded challenge with Keita (75'), and then pulled off a brilliant reflex save to deny Stefan Ilsanker (84'). Henrichs could have made it 5-1 but the keeper Gulacsi showed his class on 79 minutes. The match ended in a  convincing 4-1 win for the  Werkself who moved back into fourth place at the end of matchday 29.

Next Saturday, 14 April, sees the Werkself entertain Eintracht Frankfurt at the Bay Arena on matchday 30 in the Bundesliga. The game kicks off at 15.30 CET.

Match stats:

RB Leipzig: Gulacsi - Klostermann, Orban, Upamecano, Bernardo - Kampl, Keita (Ilsanker 76') - Sabitzer, Forsberg - Poulsen (Bruma 56'), Werner (Lookman 69')

Bayer 04: Leno – Tah, S. Bender (Retsos 19'), Wendell (Henrichs 63') – L. Bender (Jedvaj 68'), Baumgartlinger, Aránguiz, Bailey – Brandt, Volland, Havertz

Goals: 1-0 Sabitzer (17'), 1-1 Havertz (45'), 1-2 Brandt (51'), 1-3 Retsos (56'), 1-4 Volland (69')

Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Oberasbach)

Booked: -

Attendance: 35,617