BERLIN: Bayer Leverkusen’s Pat­r­ik Schick scored four times and Flo­rian Wirtz added another to hand the Bundesliga side a commanding 5-1 home win over Freiburg on Satu­rday as the defending champions pic­ked up their fifth straight league victory.

The win puts second-placed Leverkusen on 32 points, four off Bayern Munich.

“I scored four goals against (second-tier Greuther) Fuerth once, and again today,” Schick said. “It wasn’t my best game, but of course it’s special to score four goals. But apart from that, I can still play better.”

Freiburg, who had gone three league games unbeaten, had kept Leverkusen at bay for much of the first half with high pressing.

Schick finally opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time with a brilliant lob after a through ball from Wirtz, whose 33rd minute penalty had been saved by Noah Atubolu after the Germany midfielder was fouled by Ritsu Doan.

It was Atubolu’s third penalty save in a row but did little to prevent his team suffering a heavy defeat.

Wirtz doubled the lead with a close-range finish at the near post six minutes after the break before the visitors got on the scoresheet with Vincenzo Grifo’s low drive four minutes later.

Schick restored the hosts’ two-goal advantage by heading home Wirtz’s assist in the 67th and nabbed a hat-trick seven minutes later after again linking up with the 21-year-old.

The Czech international got his fourth goal with another header from a corner 13 minutes from time to complete the rout.

Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso made it 50 wins from 75 Bundesliga games to cap an historic year for the club who won the league and cup double and reached the Europa League final.

Xabi, though, praised his team’s determination but stressed that the contest was more difficult than the scoreline suggested.

“The result may have been spectacular and Patrik scored four goals but the game was not as easy as it seemed. We had a good opponent and we had to prepare our actions intelligently,” Alonso told reporters.

Earlier, Eintracht Frankfurt lost 3-1 to high-flying neighbours Mainz, who took the lead through a Kaua Santos own goal that has to go down as a contender for most bizarre goal of the season.

Frankfurt’s reserve goalkeeper Santos tried to play out from the back, passing to the under-pressure Ellyes Skhiri, who sent it looping back over the head of his keeper, against the bar, and back into the net off the back off Santos.

Mainz lost captain Nadiem Amiri to a straight red card in the 21st minute, with the midfielder dismissed for a lunge that caught Skhiri on the ankle.

But Mainz’s numerical disadvantage was not evident when Paul Nebel’s long-distance strike took a deflection to deceive Santos.

Soon after the restart it was another Santos error which gifted Nebel his second and put Mainz in complete control.

Danish defender Rasmus Kriste­nsen scored a late consolation but it was too little too late for Frankfurt who are sitting third, nine points behind Bayern and five behind Leverkusen.

Meanwhile, VfB Stuttgart’s recent renaissance ended with a 1-0 loss to St Pauli, who pulled off their third away victory of the season. St Pauli held on for a vital win that sends them up to 14th and ends Stuttgart’s five-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024