Player Ratings | RB Leipzig 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen | OneFootball

After grinding out a win against Augsburg last weekend, Bayer Leverkusen looked to maintain their lead at the top of the table with a tough game away at RB Leipzig.

Leipzig blew Leverkusen away in the first half as the table toppers struggled in the early stages to take hold of the gain. A moment of magic from Xavi Simons gave Leipzig the lead. Leverkusen managed to grow into the game but struggled to create any meaningful chances in the first half.

In the second half, Leverkusen remembered who they were and immediately scored through Nathan Tella. The game would then become a game of corners as Leipzig took the lead through Loïs Openda when counter-attacking from a poor Leverkusen corner. However, Leverkusen would equalise once again through a header from Jonathan Tah. Then right at the death similar to last weekend, Leverkusen won the game when Piero Hincapie converted a (you guessed it!) Alejandro Grimaldo corner.

The win sees Leverkusen extend their lead at the top of the table to seven points with Bayern Munich still to play Werder Bremen on Sunday.

RB Leipzig:

Janis Blaswich – 6

Mohamed Simakan – 5

Lukas Klostermann – 5

Castello Lukeba – 5

David Raum – 5

Dani Olmo – 6

Nicolas Seiwald – 5

Xaver Schalger – 6

Xavi Simons – 7 – Ran the game for Leipzig in the first half showing his intelligence with the opener. His influence in the second half waned when Leverkusen began to take control of the game.

Loïs Openda – 7- If you can call a €40m signing a coup, then Openda is one. The Belgian has seemingly slotted into the Leipzig team with ease and is one of the standout strikers in the league behind only Harry Kane and Sehrou Guirassy.

Benjamin Seško – 6

Others: Yussuf Poulsen (5), Christoph Baumgartner (5), Benjamin Henrichs (5), Kevin Kampl (5), Eljif Elmas (-)

Bayer Leverkusen:

Lukas Hradecky – 6

Josip Stanisic – 5 – An average game from the Bayern loanee, the drop in quality between him and Odilon Kossounou in the right centre-back position is noticeable.

Jonathan Tah – 6

Piero Hincapie – 6

Jeremie Frimpong – 5

Exequiel Palacios – 6

Granit Xhaka – 6

Alejandro Grimaldo – 8 – Two assists, although both from corners, they show his worth from a dead ball situation. Grimaldo is in contention for the signing of the season as since joining on a free from Benfica the Spaniard has been a revelation. With his deadball speciality then Leverkusen would be a lot worse off, not just in this game but overall.

Jonas Hofmann – 6

Florian Wirtz – 7

Patrik Schick – 5 – After a strong run of games, Schick seemingly may not be able to replicate his form from two seasons ago and replacing Victor Boniface looks like a tough ask for the Czech. Schick was relatively absent throughout the game and the difference between him and the Nigerian at striker for Leverkusen is noticeable.

Others: Nathan Tella (6), Robert Andrich (-), Adam Hlozek (-)

GGFN | Jack Meenan