Il Nuovo Postiglione - Five-star Leipzig return to form with Hamburg thumping

Norway winger Antonio Nusa was the best of the bunch for the hosts, scoring one goal and setting up two more, including one for Christopher Nkunku, the French winger's first since returning to Leipzig in August.

Tidiam Gomis, Willi Orban and Romulo also got on the scoresheet for Leipzig, who climbed to fourth with the victory.

"It's easy to look into the past too much. You lost two games. It's difficult, but you have to look forward," Nusa told reporters.

"Today we had to perform and we did, so I think we had a good balance of not thinking too much of the past, but trying to attack today and I think we did it."

Hamburg's third big defeat in their third league match this campaign leaves the six-time German champions in bottom spot in the table.

Leipzig came into the match already under pressure. After a 4-1 defeat at Como on Thursday and a 3-1 failure at Werder Bremen last week, sporting director Marcel Schaefer took the unusual step of issuing a statement on Friday saying the club was "united" despite criticisms of the side and new coach Martin Demichelis.

Gomis opened the scoring with 17 minutes gone and Nusa added another to have Leipzig two up by half-time.

Nusa set up Orban's 72nd-minute goal before creating another for Nkunku just two minutes later.

Brazilian striker Romulo added gloss to the dominant victory with a late counter-attacking effort.

Later on Sunday, promoted Elversberg host defending champions Bayern Munich.

S.Abato--INP