RB Leipzig’s five-game winning streak ended in blunt fashion on Saturday, as Bayer Leverkusen won the top match 4-1 at home. Patrik Schick scored three times for the hosts, with Nathan Tella and Christoph Baumgartner also on target in a result that pushed Leverkusen up to fourth place.
The game was level at 0-0 until the 25th minute, when Aleix Garcia set up Schick for the opener. Leipzig were still alive after Maarten Vandevoordt made saves to keep them from going 2-0 down in the 30th minute, and Max Finkgräfe and Xaver Schlager each tried from distance in the 39th, 41st and 42nd minutes. But Leverkusen took control just before halftime when Tella struck in the 45th minute, then added a third through Schick in the 76th.
Baumgartner pulled one back for Leipzig in the 80th minute, but Schick finished the match off with his third goal in the 89th. Ole Werner turned to Brajan Gruda, Conrad Harder and Assan Ouedraogo after the break in search of more attack, but the visitors never found a second goal and were left to absorb a heavy defeat in one of the league’s most closely watched fixtures.
The result mattered because Leipzig had arrived in Leverkusen on a run of five straight wins and left with their first setback in weeks, while Leverkusen used the victory to climb into fourth. For Schick, it was the kind of night that can shape a season: one clear chance after another, and no mercy when the game was there to be finished.