As would always befit a battle of sides that had each scored a joint league-high five goals each in the opening 10 minutes of Bundesliga matches, there was no shortage of pace in the early minutes, with Conrad Harder seeing a shot towards the bottom-left corner on seven minutes being repelled impressively by Mark Flekken.
Leipzig continued to press relentlessly, though, and Flekken also had to stop a point-blank header from Willi Orbán, after David Raum played a free-kick into the box.
But the Red Bulls finally struck when Xaver Schlager latched onto a throw-in, before evading the attentions of several defenders on the edge of the box and firing low through a tiny gap into the bottom-left corner.
But with each of the previous four H2Hs seeing both sides score at least twice, this was far from over, and Leverkusen hit Leipzig with a sucker punch just before the break, when a rare foray forward saw a Martin Terrier head in from close range at the end of a lofted pass into the box from Arthur.
Unbelievably, Leverkusen then completed the turnaround just four minutes later, when a devastating pass from Nathan Tella put Patrik Schick in on goal.
The Czech international did the rest, as he jinked to put his marker on the floor and swept a curling shot into the far corner, marking his comeback from an ankle injury in perfect style.
With Leverkusen unbeaten in each of Schick’s previous 34 scoring appearances for Die Werkself - and winning on 28 occasions - at least one facet of history was firmly against Leipzig turning this one around in the second half.
Attempts to level as soon as possible after the interval weren’t for the want of trying, though, and Harder was left cursing his luck when coming off second-best in a snap one-on-one against Flekken after a botched clearance.
By now, the home fans’ frustrations began to become more apparent, while Harder’s own grievances only deepened on the hour mark when he headed narrowly wide.
From there, the game’s former verve began to dissipate, with a higher incidence of niggly fouls and time wasting, as Leverkusen continued to frustrate their hosts right up to full-time.
With Leipzig unable to take anything from this elite tussle – and conceding a third in the dying moments when Montrell Culbreath smashed in on a quick counter-attack – Barcelona are now the only side across Europe’s top-five leagues to boast a perfect home league record, with the Red Bulls now having a cushion of just two points ahead of Hoffenheim in a congested race to be ‘best of the rest’ behind Bayern.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mark Flekken (Bayer Leverkusen)
