Victor Boniface has scored on his return to action as 10-man Bayer Leverkusen defeated lowly Hoffenheim 3-1 to move within six points of leaders Bayern Munich.
Nigerian forward Boniface, who had missed some three months due to injury and was the subject of recent transfer speculation, opened the scoring in the 15th minute on Sunday.
Jeremie Frimpong doubled the lead four minutes later against injury-hit Hoffenheim.
Patrik Schick came on for Boniface for the second half and fired his 14th goal of the season into the top left corner in the 51st.
Alejandro Grimaldo was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 61st, and Hoffenheim were on the scoreboard two minutes later when Gift Orban poked home in a goalmouth scramble, less than a minute after coming on.
Grimaldo’s exit was also bad news for Leverkusen’s newly signed Emiliano Buendia who had had come on at half-time but then leave again for tactical reasons.
The game became scrappy and tempers flared briefly when Florian Wirtz went down after contact with Hoffenheim’s Tom Bischof but Leverkusen held on to an overall comfortable victory.
Second-placed Leverkusen are battling to keep pace with Bayern, who they host in a fortnight, and are seven points ahead of third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt who were held 1-1 by Wolfsburg in the other Sunday game.
In Frankfurt, substitute Can Uzun headed the equaliser in the 81st minute, after Arthur Theate’s header was earlier superbly saved by Wolfsburg goalkeeper Kamil Grabara, while Hugo Ekitike was denied by the crossbar.
Wolfsburg had taken a 50th-minute lead from an own goal by Tuta, under pressure from Mohamed Amoura and involved in a big misunderstanding with goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
Frankfurt are without a victory in their last three games, having been held 2-2 at Hoffenheim last week and then lost 2-0 at Roma in the Europa League on Thursday.
The game in Leverkusen had also featured the first announcement via a public address system when referee Robin Braun explained that Leverkusen’s Nathan Tella was deemed offside by video review before being fouled for a potential penalty.
The Public Announcement project is being trialled in nine German stadiums from this weekend onwards.
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