The struggling hosts had a brilliant chance to open the scoring early on, when a deflection fortuitously bounced Jonas Wind’s way in the box, but the striker - who has failed to score in his previous 11 games - hooked wide of the near post. Wolfsburg were punished almost immediately by Lois Openda, who slammed his side into the lead with a low effort that found the bottom corner from 25 yards.
That was the Red Bulls’ first away goal in the league in over seven hours of football, and Benjamin Šeško thought he had doubled the advantage shortly afterwards, only for VAR to adjudge his strike offside.
That was a let-off for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, who soon saw Bence Dardai rattle the woodwork with a clever flicked header, but the second was just around the corner for Leipzig, with Arthur Vermeeren allowed to drive at the defence before feeding Xavi Simons, who emphatically fired home from 20 yards.
Wolfsburg were undeterred, forcing Peter Gulacsi into a fairly comfortable save from Patrick Wimmer’s header, before Jakub Kamiński hit the bar after cutting onto his right foot on the edge of the area with a clever drop of the shoulder. The hosts were unable to carry that momentum into the second period, falling three behind shortly after the break when Simons curled into the far corner from long range.
Chances still came for Die Wölfe, and they pulled a goal back in majestic fashion as Kilian Fischer whipped a wonderful long-range effort over Gulacsi and into the top corner.
That gave them some momentum, and Mohamed Amoura had two chances to further reduce the deficit, dragging an effort wide before a fingertip save from the Leipzig stopper diverted a curled shot to safety.
Leipzig were rocking, and the visitors’ nerves were heightened when Andreas Skov Olsen grabbed the hosts’ second by lifting into the top corner from close range.
From then on, it was end-to-end stuff, with Gulacsi called upon again to claw away a stunning Yannick Gerhardt volley before Kamil Grabara pulled off a point-blank save from Christoph Baumgartner as Leipzig held on for a win that moves them back into the top four in the Bundesliga.
Wolfsburg, meanwhile, remain in the bottom half of the table and are now without a win in six home matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig)