Defeat to fellow UEFA Champions League hopefuls Stuttgart last week dealt a big blow to Leipzig’s own qualification hopes, but after surviving a strong Hoffenheim start here, they set about repairing the damage.
While he may have been nursing an apparent shoulder injury, Yan Diomande demanded constant attention down the left, and that created space for others, which Die Roten Bullen made the most of to open the scoring.
Diomande found Nicolas Seiwald, who in turn fed Romulo Cardoso to shoot, and Oliver Baumann’s save was weak, leaving Brajan Gruda to tap into an empty net on the rebound.
It was a goal that came against the run of play, and far from guaranteed a positive outcome for the hosts who’ve lost four Bundesliga games in which they led this term.
Ole Werner’s men needed just four minutes to alleviate fears of that happening again here, as they doubled their lead through Hoffenheim old boy Christoph Baumgartner.
He arrived at pace to head home David Raum’s cross, with that his first-ever goal involvement against Die Kraichgauer after five prior blanks.
On the half-hour, the Leipzig talisman doubled his tally in glorious fashion, taking Gruda’s cross in stride with a wonderful touch before acrobatically finishing below Baumann before letting the ball bounce.
Leipzig even made it four before the break, with the influential Diomande weaving his magic down the left, playing a neat one-two with Seiwald before squaring for Gruda to slot home at the far post.
Diomande had the ball in the net himself before half-time, but VAR intervened to rule out that strike and spare the visitors’ blushes, though the damage had well and truly been done.
Christian Ilzer’s men at least successfully stemmed the tide after the restart, but aside from a relatively tame Grischa Promel effort, they offered little threat of their own. Leipzig looked likelier to get the contest’s next goal, though Baumgartner fired wide as he chased a hat-trick before Romulo struck the outside of the post.
A perfect evening for Leipzig was rounded off by Benjamin Henrichs, who recently returned from a long-term Achilles injury, netting his first goal since August 2023.
That completed a resounding victory which extends Leipzig’s unbeaten record in Friday-held Bundesliga home games to 10 matches and serves as just a second league win of the season against sides who currently join them in the top-five.
Hoffenheim will be bruised as they failed to secure a first league double over Leipzig since 2017/18, though, as this was just their second defeat in seven away games, they’ll hope it’s just a blip they can recover from after the international break.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Brajan Gruda (RB Leipzig)
