RB Leipzig knocked Bayern Munich, >which it meets in five days’ time , off the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday with a 2-0 win at home to Hertha Berlin.
With Bayern at bottom side Darmstadt on Sunday, Leipzig took its chance to reclaim top spot with a convincing win at its sold-out Red Bull Arena.
Leipzig, which had led for three weeks before last Saturday, is now three points clear.
However, Carlo Ancelotti’s Munich can regain top spot due to its superior goal difference by beating Darmstadt, ahead of Wednesday’s mouth-watering clash against Leipzig at the Allianz Arena.
Goals either side of the break by striker Timo Werner and burly centre-back and captain Willi Orban sealed Leipzig’s win.
It put RB back on track after last Saturday’s shock 1-0 defeat at Ingolstadt which ended its 13-match unbeaten run — a record for a team at the start of its first Bundesliga season.
“I said after the (Ingolstadt) defeat that I wanted to see a reaction and my team didn’t disappoint. We showed what we wanted from the first second,” said Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl.
Leipzig used its 64 per cent possession to create 16 shots to Hertha’s three and made nearly twice as many passes.
Pal Dardai’s Berlin drop to fourth after the defeat.
“Leipzig were a bit too quick for us,” admitted the Berlin coach.
RB went ahead when Guinea midfielder Naby Keita, who later went off with a leg injury and is set to miss the Bayern game, played Werner into the box to dart between two defenders and slot home on 41 minutes.
It was the ninth goal in 15 games for RB’s top scorer.
Werner has been working with the club’s psychologist having been booed by Ingolstadt fans every time he got the ball.
That had been the 20-year-old’s first appearance since winning a penalty in the 2-1 win over Schalke a fortnight ago with what the club later admitted was a dive.
Werner was shown a yellow against Hertha for play-acting when he went to the turf after being blocked by Berlin’s centre-back Jens Hegeler on 59 minutes.
Leipzig sealed the win on 62 minutes when Orban got on the end of Emil Forsberg’s corner kick and powered his header home, giving Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein little chance.
Orban looked to have claimed his second on 78 minutes, but the linesman flagged with three Leipzig players offside.
Mainz, Augsburg notch wins
Elsewhere, Mainz midfielder Danny Latza hit a hat-trick in his >team’s 3-1 home win over struggler Hamburg .
Augsburg’s caretaker-coach Manuel Baum got off to winning start as Martin Hinteregger scored from a corner in >its 1-0 home win over Borussia Moenchengladbach .
Ex-Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry rescued a point for Werder Bremen with his sixth league goal this season in its >1-1 draw with Cologne to cancel out Artjoms Rudnevs’ goal.
Ukrainian winger Yevhen Konoplyanka netted for >Schalke in its 1-1 draw with Freiburg .
On Friday, >10-man Borussia Dortmund earned a 2-2 draw at Hoffenheim as the league’s top scorer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, netted its second-half equaliser for his 16th goal of the season.
Hoffenheim remains the only unbeaten team in Germany’s top flight this season while Dortmund had Germany winger >Marco Reus sent off for a second booking in the first half.
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