BERLIN – Patrik Schick scored four goals as Bayer Leverkusen moved into second place in the Bundesliga with a convincing 5-1 victory over Freiburg on Saturday.
Leverkusen dominated from the start and created their first chance in the 7th minute, when Florian Wirtz fired wide.
On the half-hour mark Ritsu Doan fouled Wirtz in the area and Leverkusen was awarded a penalty. Wirtz stepped up, but was denied by Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu.
Leverkusen broke the deadlock just before half-time when Wirtz played a perfectly weighted ball to Schick, who placed the ball beyond Atubolu.
Leverkusen doubled its lead six minutes into the second half. Wirtz showed his individual genius by weaving Freiburg’s defence together before firing a point-blank shot into the back corner of the net.
Freiburg responded temporarily in the 55th minute when Vincenzo Grifo shot accurately from 16 yards into the corner.
Wirtz lent a hand again in the 67th minute, sending in an accurate cross that Schick headed in to repair Leverkusen’s two-goal lead.
Schick completed his hat-trick minutes later when he pounced on a rebound from 14 meters out, and the Czech striker sealed his fourth of the night in the 77th minute to round off a dominant performance.
Freiburg, who may not recover from Schick’s attack for 10 minutes, suffered their fifth defeat of the season and fell to eighth place in the standings. Meanwhile, Leverkusen remains the leader by four points in the dispute over the name of Bayern Munich.
“We kept our composure and continued playing tirelessly, and that is one of our qualities. We had to show our preference to win,” said Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes.
Elsewhere, 10-man Mainz notched its second straight victory with an impressive 3-1 win over third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt. Werder Bremen extended Union Berlin’s winless run to nine games with a dominant 4-1 home victory. Holstein Kiel thumped Augsburg 5-1. Borussia Monchengladbach edged Hoffenheim 2-1, and St. Pauli stunned Stuttgart 1-0 thanks to Johannes Eggestein’s decisive goal.