Benno Schmitz marked his 100th Cologne appearance with an absolute screamer – his first goal for the club – before Bayer Leverkusen produced an impressive second-half comeback to win 2-1 at the RheinEnergieStadion and take the Rhineland derby spoils.
In the early stages, Jeremie Frimpong’s run into the box was followed by a wayward shot, and Sargis Adamyan’s scuffed effort at the other end was pushed over by Lukáš Hrádecký before the resulting corner flashed past everyone.
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The deadlock was broken just after the half-hour mark when Adamyan’s cutback bounced into Schmitz’s path on the edge of the box and the right-back produced an excellent chest trap before crashing an unstoppable volley into Hrádecký’s right-hand corner as the hosts went into the break ahead for just the second time during the current league campaign.
Shortly after the restart, Hrádecký displayed cat-like reflexes to tip Jonas Hector’s piledriver onto the bar before getting down low to divert Adamyan’s effort round a post.
The match was then turned on its head as Moussa Diaby superbly kept the ball in play inside his own half on the left touchline before scooting past Kingsley Schindler and playing forward to Frimpong, who surged into the box and showed ice-cool composure to play an inch-perfect square ball back for Diaby to tuck in from close range and bag his fourth goal in seven career appearances against today’s opponents.
