Werder Bremen stun RB Leipzig 3-1 as Fullkrug scores on his return

Werder Bremen made a statement at the Weserstadion, beating RB Leipzig 3-1 to hand the visitors their first defeat of the season. New signing Eren Dinkci set the tone with the fastest goal of Bundesliga matchday 2, and Niclas Fullkrug marked his return to the club with a goal of his own.

Dinkci struck in just the 4th minute, finishing off a Chuki assist to give the hosts an early lead they never gave up. Leipzig, missing Castello Lukeba, Rocco Reitz and Brajan Gruda, had summer signing Christopher Nkunku making just his second full appearance, but could not find a way back into the game before half-time.

Fullkrug's homecoming goal

Fullkrug, back at Werder Bremen after his spell away, made it 2-0 on 68 minutes, assisted by Marco Grull. Twelve minutes later Grull turned scorer himself, converting an unlikely chance — rated just a 3% probability by the numbers — to put Bremen 3-0 up and out of sight. Ridle Baku pulled one back for Leipzig deep into stoppage time, assisted by Andrija Maksimovic, but it did nothing to change the outcome.

Leipzig actually shaded the underlying numbers, with an expected-goals reading of 1.65 to Bremen's 1.02 — a reminder that Thioune's side made the most of the game's smaller number of clear chances.

Match facts

• 4' — Eren Dinkci (Werder Bremen), assisted by Chuki
• 68' — Niclas Fullkrug (Werder Bremen), assisted by Marco Grull
• 80' — Marco Grull (Werder Bremen)
• 90+5' — Ridle Baku (RB Leipzig), assisted by Andrija Maksimovic

Possession, shot counts and cards were not published for this fixture by our reference sources, so they are left out rather than estimated.

What's next

The win puts Werder Bremen 10th on the Bundesliga table with 3 points after two games. RB Leipzig sit 8th, also on 3 points, after their first loss of the campaign.

Both sides return to action next weekend for matchday 3, Bremen looking to build on a result Thioune called "incredible" after a turbulent week off the pitch, and Leipzig needing a reset after their first setback of the season.