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Leverkusen (dpa) - Bayer Leverkusen made impressive reparations with temporary magic football four days after the embarrassing cup-out at fourth division Rot-Weiss Essen.
The Werkself defeated their favorite opponent VfB Stuttgart 5-2 (2-0) on Saturday and swirled like they did in the best of times.
However, Bayer was also lucky that there was no hand penalty for Stuttgart instead of the 3-1.
It was the 37th Bundesliga win against the Swabians, and Leverkusen won more than any other rival.
Match winners were ex-international Demirbay, who scored the first two goals (18./31.), And Moussa Diaby, who prepared three goals.
Also that of Leon Bailey (56th) and Florian Wirtz (68th), who is the first player under the age of 18 to have five Bundesliga goals.
Demarai Gray, brought from Leicester, finished the debut ten minutes after being substituted on (84th).
Sasa Kalajdzic scored both VfB goals (50th / 78th).
With the win, after two defeats at the start of the second half of the season, Leverkusen once again set an example in the fight for Champions League qualification.
Stuttgart, which also failed in the second round of the Cup on Wednesday with a 2-1 draw against Mönchengladbach, has now lost three of the most recent four league games, but still has a comfortable lead on the relegation place with 25 points.
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Bayer was apparently determined to rehabilitate itself for the 1: 2 disgrace in Essen and went offensive.
Already in the second minute it almost made it 1-0, but VfB keeper Gregor Kobel steered a shot from Leon Bailey to the crossbar.
Just as the Swabians seemed to free themselves from their grip and had a good chance thanks to Philipp Förster (14th), Bayer rewarded themselves for the strong initial phase.
Gregor Kobel saved a shot by the once again very agile Moussa Diaby, but Demirbay used the rebound in jumping with the instep.
The VfB now lost the thread again and had to change after half of the first half.
Striker Nicolas Gonzalez was injured in a collision with Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, and Kalajdzic took his place.
But Bayer was now vastly superior, and the guests were lucky that only one goal was scored before the break.
For Demirbay, who scored this time after Bailey was dropped, it was the second brace in the 117th Bundesliga game.
He succeeded in the first in April 2017 in the 5-3 Hoffenheim against Gladbach.
Had Jonathan Tah hit the goal instead of the outside post in the 48th minute, the game would have been over.
In return, Kalajdzic made the connection after Erik Thommy, who had come to the break, presented himself.
When Bailey scored the 3-1, many believed in the following video evidence that a handball was being checked by Timothy Fosu-Mensah in the Leverkusen penalty area.
However, it was only checked whether template provider Diaby was offside.
The gate counted.
The decision was made, but by no means the last goal.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210206-99-330193 / 3
Information about the game at bundesliga.de