The Albany Gazette - Red-hot Fuellkrug bags Bremen brace, Leipzig win

Fuellkrug, who returned to Bremen on loan from Championship side West Ham in the summer, converted two penalties inside the opening 25 minutes to notch up a second straight Bundesliga brace.

Ludovit Reis grabbed Bremen's other goal, while Anthony Caci and Lee Jae-sung scored for the hosts.

Fuellkrug now has eight goals this season, half of his total in his final campaign in Bremen in 2022/23, when he won the Bundesliga top-goalscorer award.

The Germany striker scored just three goals during an injury-hit 18-month spell at West Ham and just one in a six-month loan at AC Milan.

RB Leipzig rebounded from their 4-1 thumping away at Real Madrid midweek with a comfortable home win over promoted Elversberg.

Romulo scored a double while Tidiam Gomis, who scored Leipzig's only goal at the Bernabeu, and Christoph Baumgartner also got on the scoresheet as the Saxons climbed to fifth.

Paderborn's Rayan Philippe scored in the 88th minute against his parent club Hamburg to grab the promoted side a 1-0 victory in what was just their second win of the season.

Augsburg drew 1-1 with Union Berlin as both sides finished with 10 men. Han-Noah Massengo scored for the hosts on the 71-minute mark but Union's Janik Haberer levelled things up three minutes later.

Elsewhere, Cologne and Schalke played out a scoreless draw in a match marred by an ugly head clash between visiting players Robin Gosens and Soufiane El-Faouzi, who both left the field after a first-half collision.

Later on Saturday, Borussia Dortmund can move ahead of Bayern Munich atop the table by avoiding defeat at home against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Bayern, who play at Freiburg on Sunday, are without coach Vincent Kompany for the foreseeable future, with the former Manchester City defender still in hospital with a mystery illness after collapsing on the training pitch on Friday.

(R.White--TAG)