Head coach Carles Martínez made five changes to the team that had started Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Celje in the UEFA Europa League, bringing in Jarell Quansah and Gutiérrez for Lucas Vázquez and Loïc Badé in defence, plus Ezequiel Fernández, Ibrahim Maza and Afonso Moreira instead of Robert Andrich, Martin Terrier and Malik Tillman.
Ahead of the game, there was a minute’s silence for former player and assistant coach Peter Hermann, who passed away on Saturday. The players also wore black armbands. However, it was Leipzig who had the first chance of the afternoon when Ezechiel Banzuzi tested Mark Flekken after 10 minutes.
Leverkusen soon hit their stride as Gutiérrez came close to connecting with a Quansah delivery into the box. Aleix García then fired over. Leipzig had the ball in the net when Christopher Nkunku rounded off a counter-attack, but it was ruled out on review for offside. It looked like remaining goalless going into half-time after Schick and Moussa Diaby failed to take chances in the 41st minute, but the former made no mistake with added time looming as he turned in Gutiérrez’s sublime cross from the left to make it 1-0.
The second half started in a similar pattern to the first as Leipzig had a chance from early substitute Tidiam Gomis but couldn’t beat Flekken. García and Maza had further attempts, but it was Gutiérrez who doubled the lead with his first Leverkusen goal as he took advantage of Leipzig’s failure to clear their lines just before the hour mark.
The Werkself were in control by this point and able to get into the final third on several occasions. Schick, who has now scored in all four league fixtures this season, had two further chances to add a third, while captain Edmond Tapsoba and Facundo Medina kept things tight at the back as Bayer 04 recorded a third straight win over Leipzig.
Club football takes a three-week hiatus as several Werkself players go off to join their national teams for an extended international break. Leverkusen return to action away at Mainz on Saturday, 10 October (15:30 CEST).
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Flekken - Quansah, Tapsoba, Medina, Gutiérrez - Fernández (Andrich 72'), Garcia - Diaby (Vázquez 89'), Maza, Moreira - Schick (Kofane 76')
RB Leipzig: Vandevoordt - Baku (Henrichs 84'), Orban, Estève, Raum - Gruda (Gomis 26'), El Aynaoui, Banzuzi (Seiwald 67') - Nkunku (Konaté 84'), Romulo (Maksimovic 67'), Nusa
Goals: 1-0 Schick (45'), 2-0 Gutiérrez (58')
Yellow cards: Tapsoba, Moreira - Nusa, El Aynaoui, Henrichs
Referee: Robert Schröder
Attendance: 29,573 (home section sold out) at the BayArena
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