Nigeria international Victor Boniface scored for the third game in a row as Bayer Leverkusen defeated Paderborn 3-1 in Round 16 of the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday.
The Super Eagle forward opened the scoring before Exequiel Palacios doubled up inside the first half hour. Sebastian Klaas got one back for the visitors on 82 minutes, but Patrik Schick restored the two-goal lead a few moments later as Leverkusen extended their unbeaten start to 2023-24 to 21 matches.
Bayer 04 head coach Xabi Alonso made five changes to his team from the one that started the 1-1 draw with Borussia Dortmund on Sunday. Matej Kovar started in goal in place of Lukas Hradecky. The back three consisted of Josip Stanisic, Robert Andrich, and Piero Hincapie instead of Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Tah, and Edmond Tapsoba. In attack, Amine Adli got the nod over Jonas Hofmann, who was on the bench.
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The game didn’t take long to burst into life as Bayer 04 came close inside two minutes, but Jeremie Frimpong missed Adli’s delivery into the box from the left. A minute later, Paderborn had an effort from range from Kai Klefisch. The next notable attack was enough for the Werkself as Boniface ran onto Stanisic’s cross from deep and flicked the ball in off the far post for the opening goal.
The Nigerian celebrated by showing the jersey of teammate Arthur, who suffered a recurrence of a muscular injury earlier in the week. Leverkusen continued to dictate play after the goal. That control again bore fruits in the 28th minute when captain-for-the-day Andrich won the ball inside the Paderborn half and played in Palacios.
He moved the ball onto Frimpong running away down the right, who cut back to the Argentina international on the edge of the box to fire home low and make it 2-0. Alonso’s men only have four days until their next fixture as they go to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Sunday.