It was Leipzig who crafted the best of the early chances, as Neil El Aynaoui controlled the ball from a free kick on the edge of the box and released a venomous strike that was thwarted by Mark Flekken’s magnificent reactions.
The Leverkusen custodian was called into action again just two minutes later, when he had to keep out Ezechiel Banzuzi’s long-range piledriver towards the bottom left corner.
Leipzig also saw a 35th-minute goal ruled out for the finest of offside calls, when a swift move upfield saw Tidiam Gomis dink a ball over Facundo Medina into the path of Rômulo, who in turn played a neat ball across the box for Christopher Nkunku to drill home.
However, a VAR review showed Romulo to have been offside, and Leverkusen capitalised on the stroke of half-time, when Patrik Schick slid in to sweep home at the end of a long cross by Gutierrez from the left flank.
With Leverkusen having gone into this battle on the back of just one win in five league games – that being May’s corresponding fixture – there was still a bit of nervousness around the stadium.
But Gutierrez transformed that into a carnival atmosphere just 10 minutes after the restart, when he benefitted from a failed clearance and drove in a shot from just outside the box that nestled into the bottom-left corner past a helpless Maarten Vandevoordt.
With a bit more composure, Schick could have bagged a second just after the hour mark, but his shot on the end of a defence-splitting pass was too close to Vandevoordt to cause any trouble. The Czech was then subbed off for Christiane Kofane, who himself almost contributed, missing with a diving header at the far post by inches when attempting to reach a low cross from Moussa Diaby.
That missed opportunity – along with Ibrahim Maza’s late humdinger deflected wide at the near post – would ultimately prove inconsequential, and It’s now just one loss in 10 Bundesliga home games for Leverkusen, and there’s extra credit on top, given that Leipzig went into the weekend as the second-highest scorers in the Bundesliga. Today, they fizzled out after an enterprising start, though they remain in striking distance of the top four as the table begins to take shape.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Miguel Gutierrez (Bayer Leverkusen)
