Montrell Culbreath made his debut for Bayer Leverkusen one to remember as he came off the bench and scored a crucial goal to help the team to a win over RB Leipzig.
RB Leipzig 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen climbed to third place in the standings as they came from behind to take all three points from RB Leipzig at Red Bull Arena.
Malik Tillman started and played the full 90 for Leverkusen, completing 96 percents passing, winning three duels, making four key passes, and putting a shot on target. Montrell Culbreath came on in the 77th minute to complete 80 percent passing, four key passes, and win a duel on the day.
Xaver Schlager got Leipzig off to a strong start in the 35th minute when he struck his goal on the edge of the area. However, the visitors leveled the score five minutes later through Martin Terrier when his perfectly-timed run into the 18-yard box met with teammate Arthur’s lofted pass to head it past goalkeeper Peter Gulasci into the back of the net.
Patrick Schick’s goal in the 44th minute gave Leverkusen the lead when he ran on to a pass from Nathan Tella, slipped past his marker, and put his curling shot past Gulasci.
The hosts, which had an unbeaten record at home this season, were on the hunt for the equalizer. However, Leverkusen extended their lead deep in stoppage time when Culbreath took the ball off David Raum, charged into Leipzig’s goal, and blasted his shot in from point-blank range.
The win leaves Bayer three points behind second-place Borussia Dortmund.
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Borussia Monchengladbach
It wasn’t the best of returns for Gio Reyna as Borussia Monchengladbach’s jinx at Signal Iduna Park continued for them as they were blanked by Borussia Dortmund.
Reyna started and played 65 minutes for the Foals, completing 79 percent passing, winning three duels, and attempting a shot. Joe Scally was also in the starting eleven as he completed 71 percent of his passes and had one shot.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Julian Brandt volleyed in his shot into the goal from Niklas Sule’s cross.
Despite the narrow scoreline for most of the game, the visitors could not find a way to challenge Dortmund to level the score.
However, Dortmund did score an insurance goal in stoppage time when Fabio Silva set up Maximilian Beier to put his shot in the bottom right corner of the goal.
The loss puts Monchengladbach in 12th place in the standings with 16 points.
Notes
Around the Bundesliga, Noahkai Banks went the distance for Augsburg as they shared the points with Werder Bremen in a 0-0 tie.
James Sands started for St. Pauli, while Lennard Maloney was on the bench for Mainz as both teams settled for a 0-0 score.
In the 2. Bundesliga, both Julian Green and Maximilian Dietz started in the center of the park of Greuther Furth in their 2-1 loss to Dusseldorf.
Mael Corboz started and Isaiah Young came off the bench for Arminia Bielefeld in the team’s 1-1 tie with Hertha Berlin.
Johan Gomez played 70 minutes for Eintracht Braunschweig in their 2-1 win over Schalke.
Santiago Casteneda came on in stoppage time for Paderborn as they shared the spoils with Darmstadt in a 2-2 tie.
John Tolkin came on to play 27 minutes for Holstein Kiel in their 2-1 win over Dynamo Dresden.
Down in the 3. Liga, both Terrence Boyd and Emmanuel Iwe started for Waldhof Mannheim in their 2-2 tie with Ingolstadt.
Ryan Malone started and scored a goal for Erzgebirge Aue in their 4-0 thrashing of Schweinfurt.
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