Leverkusen blows Frankfurt away to stay in touch
Bayer Leverkusen delivered a ruthless first-half performance, striking three times in just seven minutes, to set up a crushing 4-1 Bundesliga win at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Moving to 53 points with the win, Leverkusen is now 11 clear of third-placed Eintracht, but it remains eight adrift of league leader Bayern Munich after its comeback win at Stuttgart 24 hours earlier.
Leverkusen's breakthrough came in the 26th minute when Nathan Tella slipped in behind the Eintracht defence. With a composed first touch, he set himself up before driving a low shot across goal, finding the bottom-left corner.
Just three minutes later, Nordi Mukiele extended their lead with a close-range effort.
The scoring spree was capped off in the 33rd minute when Patrik Schick calmly slotted the ball home from inside the box after latching on to a pass from the byline.
However, Leverkusen's confidence led to a lapse in concentration, allowing Eintracht to capitalise.
Seven minutes before the break, Hugo Ekitike seized on a misplaced back pass, rounded goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, and slotted the ball into an empty net.
Leverkusen recovered its composure in the second half, though, with Aleix Garcia firing low into the far corner after 62 minutes to make the points safe.
Xabi Alonso is still yet to taste defeat on his travels as a coach in the competition, extending his record-breaking unbeaten away run to 29 matches with this result.
