4-1 loss to Leverkusen | OneFootball

Bayer 04 Leverkusen inflicted just a second home defeat of the season on Eintracht Frankfurt.

Head coach Dino Toppmöller rotated following the defeat at Bayern Munich. Fit-again Robin Koch returned to the side in place of the suspended Tuta, while January signing Elye Wahi was handed his full debut, preferred to Can Uzun up front. The other changes saw Ellyes Skhiri, Mario Götze and Nathaniel Brown come in for Oscar Højlund, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya and Nnamdi Collins.

Four goals in 11 minutes

There was little to report from the first 25 minutes, with Leverkusen having the majority of the possession but not really troubling Kevin Trapp in the Frankfurt goal. The Eagles had the best opportunity in this period on 11 minutes, when Hugo Ekitiké raced through on the counter, but after receiving the ball back from Wahi he fired over.

However, the game sparked into life when the visitors took the lead in the 26th minute. Granit Xhaka’s through ball found Nathan Tella, who got in between Koch and Arthur Theate and aimed a low show into the bottom corner from just outside the area. Tella was almost in again moments later when he was denied by Trapp from a tight angle, but the resulting corner caused a melee in the box and with Eintracht unable to clear, Nordi Mukiele bundled the ball in to double the champions’ advantage. It got worse for the hosts four minutes later, as Patrik Schick slotted in a third goal from Alejandro Grimaldo’s cut-back.

A shock for Frankfurt, who didn’t deserve to be three goals down, but they recovered and pulled one back in the 37thminute. Ekitiké pounced on a short back-pass from Mukiele before rounding goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky and smashing in his 13th Bundesliga goal of the season. That lifted the home players and crowd and another goal even looked on the cards before half-time, but it stayed at 3-1.

Garcia ends comeback hopes

The Eagles, with Højlund and Collins replacing Hugo Larsson and Knauff for the second half, carried on that momentum as they looked to further reduce the deficit. Ekitiké hit the outside of the post after a lay-off from Wahi, who was offside anyway. However, just as it looked like the hosts were closer to getting the next goal, Bayer delivered the knockout blow on 62 minutes. Koch could only head Jeremie Frimpong’s cross to the edge of the box, where Alex Garcia met the bouncing ball with a fierce volley that nestled into the left corner.

That goal knocked the fight out of Eintracht and the contest petered out in the closing stages, punctuated with several substitutions on both sides. Leverkusen comfortably saw out a win which moves them 11 points clear of the Eagles in second place.