Patrik Schick scored a hat-trick as Bayer Leverkusen ended a miserable three-match winless run in the Bundesliga, recovering from two goals down to beat Heidenheim 5-2 at the BayArena and extending the visitors’ winless run to a club-record six top-flight matches.
With the international breaks now out of the way, Leverkusen had no margin for error as they aim to chase down Bayern Munich and retain their Bundesliga crown.
The visit of a struggling Heidenheim side appeared an ideal place to start on paper, but Die Werkself’s woes showed no sign of ending as they fell two goals behind inside the opening 21 minutes.
First, the visitors were alert from a Leverkusen throw-in in the hosts’ defensive third, with Marvin Pieringer picking Piero Hincapie’s pocket and squaring for Niklas Dorsch to score for the first time in 57 league matches.
The BayArena was stunned into silence when Heidenheim’s second went in, as Mathias Honsak was allowed to skip between Granit Xhaka and Jonathan Tah with ease before slotting a cool finish into the corner past Lukas Hradecky.
Xabi Alonso’s comeback specialists now had a mountain to climb, but in typical fashion, two goals in as many minutes restored parity before the break.
Exequiel Palacios had a hand in both, firing high at the near post after being slotted in by an incisive first-time pass from Granit Xhaka, before returning the favour to find Schick, who applied the finishing touch to another exquisite move with a delicate chip over the onrushing goalkeeper.
The interval came at a good time for Heidenheim, who needed to stem the flow of Leverkusen attacks and reverse the momentum of the contest.
Yet, within seven minutes of the restart, the seemingly inevitable third home goal arrived in some style as Florian Wirtz finally got in on the act, dancing away from his marker before squaring to Schick, who applied another glorious finish at the near post.
Hitting the front arguably made Alonso’s side more vulnerable, as they’ve already dropped 11 points from winning positions in the Bundesliga this season.
However, their dominance of this contest ensured there’d be no slip-up on this occasion, as Schick completed his hat-trick by heading home at the back post from substitute Arthur’s cross to put the contest beyond the beleaguered visitors.
