After a first half that lacked any real spark, the second period began with a bang. Stefan Kießling scored, his first goal for what seemed an eternity, to send Roger Schmidt's men into the lead. Heung-Min Son doubled their advantage soon after, before Ceyhun Gülselam pulled a goal back instantly. Karim Bellarabi then netted with eighteen minutes to go and secured the three points.

Tayfun Korkut made two changes to the side that triumphed 0-2, in Berlin, two weeks ago. Stefan Thesker and Leonardo Bittencourt dropped to the bench, allowing Edgar Prib and Lars Stindl to start. As for Bayer Leverkusen and Roger Schmidt, they replaced Julian Brandt, Guilo Donati and Wendell with Sebastian Boenisch, Roberto Hilbert and Simon Rolfes.

The first-half was very even, as neither side were able to create a guilt-edge chance. Karim Bellarabi was a constant threat through-out the half, but the side-netting and Ron-Robert Zieler kept him from opening the scoring. Though, as the half drew on, Hiroshi Kiyotake and captain Stindl began to take hold of the game; only for Bernd Leno to pull off two fine saves and bring the sides in level at the break.

However, within sixty seconds of the restart, Leverkusen had the lead. Stefan Kießling, who hadn't scored for almost 900 minutes, scrambled Schmidt's men into the lead. After being played in by Hakan Cahlanoglu, Gonzalo Castro burst through and crossed for Kießling. The striker duly obliged by finishing off the move and put Bayer into the ascendency.

They didn't need to wait long for a second, as Heung-Min Son cut inside from the left and curled home a brilliant shot past the outstretched arm of Zieler. A cracking effort from the South Korean was soon cancelled out by Ceyhun Gülselam's header. Any hope proved to be in vain, as Bellarabi finished off Hilbert's fantastic through-ball to seal the three points.

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About the author
Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]