Saturday, August 13, 2022 at 17:30• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 17:36

Timo Werner immediately made himself felt on his return in the shirt of RB Leipzig. The attacker needed 36 minutes to score his first goal of the season. However, it was not enough for the win, as the team got stuck in a 2-2 draw against 1. FC Köln. Bayer Leverkusen also lost points. The Dutch has to bow to FC Augsburg, which turned out to be too strong with 1-2. Jean-Paul Boëtius made his debut in the shirt of Hertha BSC, but could not prevent the club from the capital getting stuck in a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.

RB Leipzig – 1. FC Cologne 2-2
At RB Leipzig, eyes were on Timo Werner, who returned from an overseas adventure at Chelsea this summer. In the 36th minute it was equal for the German striker. Werner shot from about 25 meters and was then lucky that Köln goalkeeper Marvin Schwabe let the ball slip through his hands. Still, the visitors tied the score five minutes later. Florian Dietz scored on a pass from Florian Kainz, who passed the ball ready to go at the far post. Even before halftime, Leipzig’s problems got bigger. Dominik Szoboszlai was shown red in the injury time of the first half after a slight arm movement towards goalscorer Kainz.

After tea, Köln came close to scoring the equalizer. A cross from Jonas Hector reached the far post, where his fellow players were just short of tapping in. Moments later, it happened on the other side. On a pass from Dani Olmo, Christopher Nkunku shot nicely into the long corner. Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart then decided to make three substitutions and not much later the equalizer was there. Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol didn’t know what to do with the ball from a corner, so the Croat worked the leather in his own goal.

Bayer Leverkusen – FC Augsburg 1-2
With Mitchel Bakker, Jeremie Frimpong and Jeffrey Gouweleeuw in the base and Daley Sinkgraven on the bench, the first pinpricks for the visitors, who brutally took the lead after fifteen minutes of play. After a brilliant attack over the left side of the field, the ball ended up at Fredrik Jensen, who pushed the ball past goalkeeper Andrei Loenjov with the tip of his shoe. It took until the closing minute of the first half before Leverkusen tied the score. Charles Aránguiz got the ball on the edge of the sixteen after a blocked shot and made a nice volley: 1-1. Leverkusen seemed to have the most claim to a victory in the final phase, but had to swallow the 1-2 ten minutes before the end, when André Hahn scored from about twenty meters: 1-2.

Hertha Berlin – Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1
Mario Götze played the first hour at Eintracht, while Boëtius made his debut at Hertha with a substitute in the last 32 minutes. An excellent pass from Dodi Lukebakio landed on Suat Serdar’s head in the third minute, who simply gave Hertha the lead: 1-0. That margin should have been increased after 22 minutes by Wilfried Kanga, who aimed a simple tapper over the top. Three minutes after the break, Eintracht was helped back into the game by Filip Uremovic, who just handed the ball over to Randal Kolo Muani during the build-up. The attacker took off and put wide on Daichi Kamada, who was able to slide in like this: 1-1. Boëtius then came in and made one goal attempt: a total failed shot from twenty meters. New ball loss in their own half seemed to cost Hertha a penalty one minute before the end, but the VAR reversed that.