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Former Union player and leading scorer for Bayer: Robert Andrich
Photo: Marius Becker / dpa
Bayer Leverkusen scored three important points in the relegation battle in the Bundesliga and celebrated a surprising 5-0 (0-0) home win over Union Berlin.
In an outstanding second half, Robert Andrich (46th minute), Moussa Diaby (56th/58th minute), Adam Hlozek (68th) and Mitchell Bakker (76th) scored for coach Xabi Alonso's team, who was in his second Bundesliga victory and climbed to 14th place in the table with Leverkusen.
At the top of the league, Union has lost the lead in the table and is now two points behind FC Bayern Munich with 26 points.
The first half was almost entirely uneventful.
The official statistics of the league after 45 minutes showed an expected goals comparison of 0.07 for Leverkusen and 0.1 for the guests from Berlin, so neither team created any significant chances.
That changed in the second half.
Even before the change of sides, Union had left the game to the opponent in the tried and tested manner, but did not leave any space around their own penalty area.
Immediately after the restart, Leverkusen solved the problem of not getting into the danger zone with a set piece: Former Union professional Andrich pushed a corner kick over the line (46').
Grill wobbles, Diaby hits
Due to an individual error by Lennart Grill, who represented Frederik Rönnow in the Union goal, the disaster for the guests continued.
The keeper lost the ball to Jeremie Frimpong far in front of his own goal, and Diaby only had to put the ball into the empty goal (56').
With a low shot after a counterattack, the French even managed the double strike just minutes later (58th).
The game was decided, but Leverkusen were still in the mood to play after a disappointing season so far.
After an hour, Union coach Urs Fischer brought on three new players, but only Bayer continued to be dangerous.
Hlozek refined a low cross from Nadiem Amiri with a hoe to make it 4-0 (68'), Bakker contributed the final score (76').
It was the heaviest defeat in the Bundesliga for Union, level with a 5-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund in the 2019/2020 season.
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