RB Leipzig scored three goals in the first half before holding off a spirited Hertha Berlin comeback after the break to win an entertaining Bundesliga game 3-2 at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday. Goals from Emil Forsberg, Abdou Diallo, and Willi Orban put Leipzig in command before Dodi Lukebakio and Stevan Jovetic equalised to set up a tense finish.
After 25 minutes, Leipzig took the lead on a counter-attack with Hertha’s defence out of position, as Dominik Szoboszlai’s near-post cross was turned in by Forsberg, who timed his run perfectly and deftly diverted the ball home with his knee.
Szoboszlai provided the assist again five minutes later when his corner found Diallo, whose header took two deflections before beating Oliver Christensen.
Andre Silva’s effort then came off the far post, but Orban was on hand to clean up and bundle in the rebound to give Leipzig a 3-0 lead just before halftime.
Hertha equalised two minutes later, with Lukebakio converting a penalty after a handball and Jovetic cushioning a loose clearance from a set piece with his chest and firing into the bottom corner.
On the other end of the pitch, Leipzig top scorer Christopher Nkunku was denied twice late in the game, once by a superb goal-line clearance from Lukebakio and then by VAR, which chalked off his effort for offside in the build-up.
Hertha’s Wilfried Kanga was then denied twice in extra time, one effort coming off the post, as the hosts held on for the three points and moved up to ninth in the table with 15 points from ten games. Hertha remains in 15th place with eight points.
On the other hand, Borussia Monchengladbach led VfL Wolfsburg twice thanks to Marcus Thuram’s brace, but the hosts earned a point with goals from Yannick Gerhardt and Omar Marmoush in a 2-2 draw.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt moved up to fourth in the Bundesliga after defeating 10-man Bayer Leverkusen 5-1 at home on Saturday, with Daichi Kamada scoring twice from the penalty spot.
