Gruda and Baumgartner score two each as Leipzig hammers Hoffenheim

LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) — Brajan Gruda and Christoph Baumgartner both scored twice in a first-half blitz as Leipzig overran Hoffenheim 5-0 on Friday and seized the momentum in a ding-dong battle for a spot in next season’s Champions League.

The Bundesliga top four qualify for the Champions League and Leipzig started the night fifth, three points behind Hoffenheim.

But it seized the initiative in spectacular fashion and took the lead with its first real attack of the match.

With 17 minutes gone, Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann could not hold Rômulo’s shot and it fell to Gruda, the midfielder on loan from Brighton, to poke the ball in from close range.

Four minutes later, Baumgartner made it two, when he flew in at the back post to header home a cross from David Raum.

The Austrian striker looked dangerous in and around the Hoffenheim penalty box and he scored his second and Leipzig’s third after half an hour with a superb piece of finishing. The former Hoffenheim player chested down Gruda’s long ball and volleyed it past Baumann as he fell to the ground.

Gruda then put the game firmly beyond the visitor’s reach when he made it 4-0 a minute before halftime.

Leipzig defender Benjamin Henrichs rounded off the drubbing late in the second half.

Hoffenheim came into the match with a club record 50 points after 26 games but it missed talismanic midfielder Leon Avdullahu, who was absent from the lineup for the first time this season.

The result was its heaviest defeat of the season and, although it was equal with Leipzig on points, it fell into fifth.

Stuttgart was fourth and Leipzig now third.

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