Bayer Leverkusen climbed to third in the table this evening courtesy of a 4-0 thrashing of Stuttgart which piled more misery on the Bundesliga's bottom side.
Josip Drmic scored a brace as Roger Schmidt's side recorded a third successive victory without conceding to leapfrog Borussia Monchengladbach in the standings.
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It was Stuttgart, now without a win in nine games, who started the brighter as Timo Werner squared for Daniel Ginczek to force a good save out of Bernd Leno.
However, Bayer were in front just after the half-hour mark as Wendell fired a shot into the bottom corner after Stuttgart failed to clear Son Heung-min's shot.
They quickly doubled their lead as the unmarked Drmic benefitted from some more poor defending to convert Roberto Hilbert's delivery from the right flank.
The hosts could have been well clear by the break as Kyriakos Papadopoulos headed Hakan Calhanoglu's corner just over the crossbar, but they did get their third shortly after the restart.
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Karim Bellarabi drove into the box, wrong footing Gotoku Sakai with some smart skill and drilling across Sven Ulreich inside the far post for his 10th goal of the season, although Bayer saved their best until last.
Drmic completed a fine team move in which Calhanoglu was heavily involved on 59 minutes to allow his side to coast through the final half an hour ahead of Tuesday's huge Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid.
Joe Fish
