Leipzig stay atop after Bayern draw; Alcacer again on target for Dortmund

An Emil Forsberg penalty and a little help from VAR saw RB Leipzig stay top of the Bundesliga with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at home to Bayern Munich on Saturday.

In the second of two top-of-the-table clashes on Saturday, Leipzig survived a first half onslaught to frustrate the champions and fuel hopes of a three-horse title race in the German league this season.

The draw leaves Bayern in third, while Leipzig now sit a point above Borussia Dortmund, who moved up to second with a thumping 4-0 win over top four rivals Bayer Leverkusen earlier in the day.

It took Lewandowski just three minutes to grab the opener as Bayern dominated the first half in Leipzig.

Yet despite having had three times as much possession and twice as many shots, Bayern went in at half time with the scores level after Forsberg’s penalty on the stroke of half time.

Bayern, who had themselves had a penalty retracted by VAR ten minutes earlier, were left stunned and allowed Leipzig back into the game after the break. In an earlier match, Spanish striker Paco Alcacer continued his perfect scoring record this season as Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways with a 4-0 victory over top-four rivals Bayern Leverkusen on Saturday.

Dortmund were under pressure after a shock defeat to minnows Union Berlin in their last game, but goals from Alcacer, Marco Reus and Raphael Guerreiro secured a much-needed three points for Lucien Favre’s side. Alcacer, who meets his former club Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, has now scored seven goals in six games in all competitions this season.

“Paco is a fantastic player, he is enormously important for us,” said Dortmund forward Julian Brandt. Dortmund were denied by a brilliant double save from goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky early on before Alcacer gave them the lead just before the half-hour mark.

Shaking off his marker and beating the offside trap by a whisker, the in-form Spaniard met an Achraf Hakimi cross on the volley to beat Hradecky from close range.

Leverkusen looked the more dangerous side after the break, but Dortmund were more ruthless, and Marco Reus turned in Jadon Sancho’s cross to double the lead on 50 minutes.

Sancho set up Raphael Guerreiro for Dortmund’s third seven minutes from time, before Reus added a fourth in injury time.

Elsewhere, Borussia Moenchengladbach ran out 1-0 winners against Cologne in the Rhine derby.

Gladbach took the lead on 14 minutes after French striker Alassane Plea swept in a loose ball on the counter-attack, and Cologne spurned a late flurry of chances as the visitors notched up a second win of the season.

Augsburg ended their early-season blues with a smash-and-grab 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Marco Richter opened the scoring against the run of play on 36 minutes, before a brilliant curling strike from Florian Niederlechner doubled Augsburg’s lead. Goncalo Paciencia’s second-half strike was not enough for Frankfurt, who face Arsenal in the Europa League next Thursday,

Agence France-Presse

German League results on Saturday:

RB Leipzig 1 (Forsberg 45+3-pen) Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 3); Borussia Dortmund 4 (Alcacer 28, Reus 50, 90 Guerreiro 83) Bayer Leverkusen 0; Mainz 2 (Quaison 40, St Juste 88) Hertha Berlin 1 (Grujic 83); Augsburg 2 (Richter 36, Niederlechner 43) Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (Paciencia 73); Cologne 0 Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Plea 14); Union Berlin 1 (Andersson 14-pen) Werder Bremen 2 (Klaassen 5-pen, Fuellkrug 55)