Nigeria international Victor Boniface scored the opener as Bayer 04 Leverkusen snatched a comfortable 2-0 win against Hackein in their UEFA Europa League fixture on Thursday night.
The victory enabled Bayer 04 to qualify for the last 16 as group winners and it was the team’s fifth win from as many games in Group H. Victor Boniface opened the scoring at the Ullevi in Gothenburg before Patrik Schick wrapped things up in the second half with his first goal of the season.
Gustavo Puerta was handed his first start for Leverkusen, Noah Mbamba his Europa League debut, and Ayman Aourir his senior bow. Head coach Xabi Alonso made eight changes to his team from the 3-0 win away at Werder Bremen at the weekend.
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Only Piero Hincapie, Robert Andrich, and Boniface retained their places, with Puerta named in the starting XI for the first time. Both teams initially had to find their feet on the snow-covered pitch at the Ullevi, which was previously the venue for the 1958 World Cup semi-final and 1992 European Championship final – both games featuring Germany.
The first chance of the game fell to Bayer 04 and was duly dispatched as Nathan Tella played in Josip Stanisic, whose cross to the far post was met by Boniface to head in with only 14 minutes gone – much to the joy of the 900 travelling fans. The game settled a bit after that before Mikkel Rygaard fired over for the Swedish Cup winners. Five minutes later, Matej Kovar made three notable stops to deny the hosts and keep the group leaders ahead at the break.
There was no mistake from Schick, though, as he coolly turned in Stanisic’s low cross to double the advantage and open his account for the season with 74 minutes gone. The Werkself’s next game sees Borussia Dortmund come to the BayArena on Sunday before Paderborn visit for the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday.