Chicharito fires Leverkusen to victory; Stuttgart lose again
The Mexican international now has 10 goals in his last seven matches and he sent Leverkusen into an early 2-0 lead at the Commerzbank Arena. Slobodan Medojevic pulled one back before half time, but Hakan Calhanoglu tied up the win to move Leverkusen into the top-six.
The Werkself have been on a difficult run of late, losing their last three games including the derby with Cologne two weeks ago. Before a trip to BATE Borisov in the Champions League, the two-hour journey to Eintracht Frankfurt had banana skin written all over it.
Leverkusen's opener on 23 minutes was a mixture of superb pressing and calamitous defending from the home side. Kevin Kampl swarmed the man in possession, recovered the ball but the cutback was horribly misjudged by Marco Russ whose fresh air swipe allowed Hernandez to slot home.
On 35 minutes, Hernandez got the rub of the green as he strayed offside before rifling Calhanoglu's pass low into the back of the net.
But Roger Schmidt's side have been defensively vulnerable throughout this season - especially from set-piece situations. And so, it was little surprise when Frankfurt cut the deficit through Marc Stendera's corner kick and Slobodan Medejoevic's header on the stroke of half time.
Frankfurt passed up a handful of opportunities in the second half and were punished by Calhanoglu's well-worked third on 72 minutes as Leverkusen ended their recent streak of three straight defeats.
Elsewhere, Stuttgart were resigned to another crushing home defeat - this time a 4-0 loss to Augsburg - which leaves the future of coach Alexander Zorniger up in the air.
The Swabians were down as early as the 11th minute when Alexander Esswein tucked home a fine move - but already there were concerns about Stuttgart's defensive structure. Raul Bobadilla couldn't add a second minutes later, yet it didn't matter as Augsburg doubled their lead three minutes later.
Esswein's shot from the edge of the box took a wild deflection against Timo Baumgartl and wrong-footed young keeper Odisseas Vlachodimos. If anything summed up some of Stuttgart's misfortune this season, it was the identical long-ranger from Lukas Rupp minutes later which was excellently saved by Augsburg keeper Marwin Hitz.
Jan-Ingwer Callsen Bracker headed in a third with Vlachodimos was in no man's land at a corner kick on 35 minutes before Ja-Cheol Koo tucked home a fourth early in the second period. Despite recording one of their biggest Bundesliga wins ever, Augsburg remains second-bottom in the table, one point behind Stuttgart who have only 10 points from 13 games - their worst-ever start to a league campaign.
Borussia Monchengladbach consolidated their spot in fourth, extending their run of unbeaten games to nine under Andre Schubert, now permanent coach, with a 2-1 win over Hannover.
Artur Sobiech's deserved equalizer for the visitors, cancelling out the opener from Ibrahima Traore, had put the game on a knife edge towards the end. But Raffael popped up to bag the three points for the Foals.
It was fitting that on a day of remembrance for the victims of the Paris attacks, Ibrahima Traore, who grew up in the French capital, capped off a fine performance with a goal on 38 minutes. But Hannover stepped up after the break and were the better side for most of the second half.
After Uffe Bech had missed several chances for the Reds, Sobiech bundled home at a corner kick on 65 minutes to level the scores. However, Raffael scored his sixth league goal under Schubert to keep Gladbach's impressive turnaround on track.
Wolfsburg, two points ahead of the Foals in third, returned to winning ways with a dominant 6-0 home win over Werder Bremen.
Vieirinha threatened Bremen goalie Raphael Wolf as early as the second minute, his curling shot heading for the corner of the net if Wolf hadn't reacted. Viktor Skripnik's men require serious surgery at the back as the home side cut them open with some excellent passing moves.
The Wolves took the lead when Christian Trasch combined with Vieirinha on 11 minutes before the full-back's cross was turned past Wolf by Alejandro Galvez. An unmarked Luiz Gustavo headed against the post in the 25th minute before the midfielder was subbed off due to injury on the half hour mark.
Vieirinha crossed for Max Kruse on 41 minutes, the striker beating the towering Jannick Vestergaard to head home the second. Ten minutes after the restart, Portuguese wide man Vieirinha rounded off a superb performance, arriving late in the box to score the third.
Things would go from bad to worse for Bremen in the last 30 minutes as Wolf was left exposed by some half-hearted defensive play. Substitute Andre Schurrle crossed for Joscha Guilavogui who stabbed the ball home from close range on 66 minutes. Schurrle and Kruse set up Dutchman Bas Dost who tapped in the fifth four minutes later. And Kruse netted his second goal three minutes from full-time.
Such a heavy defeat for under-fire Skripnik may also provide enough ammunition for the club to pull the trigger after 13 matches with Werder sliding closer to the bottom-three.
Cologne couldn't follow up their derby win before the international break as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Mainz.