published: thursday 8 november 2012, 23.20cet bayer 04 leverkusen 3-0 sk rapid wien
leverkusen are through to the last 32 after complementing a fourth straight clean sheet with goals from jens hegeler, andré schürrle and manuel friedrich.
bayer 04 leverkusen confirmed their place in the last 32 of the uefa europa league with a convincing 3-0 victory against sk rapid wien that also brought a fourth successive group k clean sheet for the bundesliga side.
goals from jens hegeler, andré schürrle and manuel friedrich secured three decisive points for the rhineland club, who are now assured of a top-two spot in their section. solid again at the back, leverkusen can likewise pride themselves on being the only team in the group stage yet to concede, while point-less rapid are out.
the austrian team were out to break a run of eight consecutive losses on german soil, but a 4-0 home defeat on matchday three highlighted the scale of their task. ıt became harder still after just four minutes, hegeler nodding in the rebound after a junior fernándes header had bounced back off the crossbar.
two minutes later, the visitors' bar was rattled again by a curling daniel carvajal cross. rapid's response, in the face of a well-organised defence, was limited to two real chances. the first fell to stefan kulovits, who shot wide from 12 metres on the half-hour, before christopher trimmel clipped a post with a 40th-minute header from a superb thomas schrammel cross.
leverkusen rediscovered their momentum in the second period and stylishly doubled their advantage on 53 minutes. terrence boyd headed a friedrich cross only as far as schürrle and, 20 metres out, the german international smashed a fierce volley into the bottom corner.
another dangerous delivery, this time a corner, brought a third goal when ömer toprak's cushioned header set up friedrich to nod past lukas königshofer 24 minutes from time.
