BERLIN: RB Leipzig again knocked Bayern Munich from top spot in the Bundesliga table on Saturday as their 2-1 win at home to Schalke 04 left them three points clear.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern had regained the lead with a 3-1 win at Mainz 05 on Friday night but Leipzig replaced them less than 24 hours later, moving to 33 points after 13 games.

Bayern and Leipzig are set to meet at Munich’s Allianz Arena on December 21 in a mouth-watering pre-Christmas showdown.

A second-half own-goal from Schalke’s Bosnia international Sead Kolasinac sealed Leipzig’s win, their 10th league victory, extending their record unbeaten run to 13 matches in their first Bundesliga season.

Leipzig took an early lead in controversial fashion as Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann conceded a penalty with just 19 seconds gone when the referee judged he had made contact with RB’s top scorer Timo Werner.

Replays showed the Leipzig forward dived, but Werner, 20, drilled in his eighth league goal of the season. Faehrmann was booked to add insult to injury for Schalke.

Schalke recovered and Kolasinac equalised after half an hour, only to score an own-goal seconds after the break when he attempted to clear Emil Forsberg’s free kick.

Earlier, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Borussia Dortmund crushed Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-1 to bounce back after last week’s defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt and continue their pursuit of the Bundesliga’s pace-setters.

Dortmund’s victory lifted Thomas Tuchel’s team to fifth place on 24 points, one behind fourth-placed Hoffenheim, for whom Sandro Wagner scored twice in the 4-0 win over Cologne, and three off third-placed Hertha Berlin.

Hertha needed a stoppage-time penalty from Salomon Kalou after Wolfsburg’s Paul Seguin was sent off with a second booking, to snatch a late 3-2 win.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016