An optimistic Leipzig started with vigour against the reigning champions, but their Saturday evening started to go downhill after Edmond Tapsoba tested Peter Gulacsi with a back-post header with just eight minutes played.
Piero Hincapie then hit the bar from close range in another warning sign for Die Roten Bullen, before Marco Rose became the first Bundesliga manager to be sent off twice in his career for overzealously venting his frustrations to referee Matthias Jollenbeck.
A clear chance was then missed by Benjamin Sesko, and the Leipzig defence began to capitulate without Rose’s direction from the sidelines.
Their first mistake came from Lukas Klostermann, whose botched clearing header put Jeremie Frimpong through on goal, leaving the Dutch international to turn past El Chadaille Bitshiabu and slot inside Gulacsi’s near post.
With chances for the hosts beginning to tot up, Bitshiabu allowed Martin Terrier to recycle an attack to Florian Wirtz, who knocked it across to Alex Grimaldo to easily tap in a second from the centre of the area.
Most of the chances might have gone to Die Werkself in the first half, but they didn’t have it all their own way in the end as Kevin Kampl darted to the near post to glance in Benjamin Henrichs’ cross deep into stoppage time and halve their deficit.
Leverkusen continued creating opportunities after the restart, but the clearest ones began to go the way of the visitors.
Kampl had Matej Kovar stretching to pick it out of the top corner with a long-range effort, before Castello Lukeba was unfortunate to have his strike ruled out because Sesko was standing in an offside position.
They didn’t have to wait much longer for their equaliser though, with Šeško sending Openda racing away to slide it through the legs of Kovar.
Having now scored in each of his three appearances against Leverkusen, the Belgian then received it from Antonio Nusa to fire through Tapsoba’s legs and inside the near post from distance, completing a stunning turnaround for his side.
Given Leverkusen’s late antics last campaign – in which they scored 18 goals in the 90th minute or later – the BayArena crowd were almost expectant of a late salvager, but on this occasion it never arrived.
That meant they were unable to match Hamburg’s second-best ever 36-match unbeaten run of 1983 and won’t replicate the previous campaign, while Rose’s side have now put together a 13-match streak of their own without defeat.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lois Openda (RB Leipzig)
