Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez (r.) became the first Mexican to score a brace in the Bundesliga with his double in Frankfurt - © © imago / Huebner
Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez (r.) became the first Mexican to score a brace in the Bundesliga with his double in Frankfurt - © © imago / Huebner

Chicharito writes history as Leverkusen beat Frankfurt

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Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez continued his astonishing scoring streak on Saturday by netting his first Bundesliga brace in Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s 3-1 victory away to Eintracht Frankfurt. In doing so he became Mexico's all-time leading scorer in the Bundesliga with his fifth and sixth strikes in the German top flight.

Eintracht Frankfurt 1-3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Goals: 0-1 Hernandez (23’), 0-2 Hernandez (39’), 1-2 Medojevic (45’), 1-3 Calhanoglu (72’)

Having started the day down in ninth in the standings, Leverkusen began as if determined to make amends immediately, pushing high up the pitch and refusing to let Frankfurt out of their own half. A couple of early half-chances for the visitors indicated that a goal was coming, so there was no surprise when they took the lead in the 23rd minute. Given his recent scoring form, it was perhaps inevitable that Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez broke the deadlock by tapping in from close range after good work by Kevin Kampl.

Chicharito grabbed his second of the afternoon with a well-taken finish from Hakan Calhanoglu’s delightful through ball, only for Frankfurt to surprisingly pull a goal back on the stroke of half-time when Slobodan Medojevic headed in from a free-kick. Frankfurt were much improved after the break and could have equalised when Stefan Aigner found himself free in front of goal, but he blazed his effort over. It was a miss they would come to regret, as Calhanoglu later sealed the points for Roger Schmidt’s men with a delightful curling shot from the edge of the area.

Man of the match

With two crucial strikes to take his tally to ten goals in his last seven competitive matches, Chicharito was again the decisive figure for Leverkusen. Furthermore, the Mexican forward was constantly on the move, ghosting away from his markers to open up space for his team-mates.

Talking point

Leverkusen’s victory ended a run of three consecutive defeats in all competitions, and it was the first time they have won away from home since beating SV Werder Bremen 3-0 back in September

Match stats

    Chicharito scored his third brace for Leverkusen, having already done so in the DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League. He is the first Mexican to hit a double in the Bundesliga.Bayer scored the first goal of a league game for only the fourth time this season. Christoph Kramer covered more ground than any other player (12.02 kilometres).

Line-ups

Frankfurt: Hradecky – Hasebe (Waldschmidt 77’), Zambrano, Abraham, Oczikpa – Aigner, Stendera, Medojevic, Ignjovski (Gerezgiher 65’) – Meier – Castaignos (Chandler 22’)
Leverkusen: Leno – Donati, Tah, Toprak, Wendell – Kramer, Kampl – Bellarabi (Ramalho 89’), Calhanoglu (Yurchenko 80’), Mehmedi – Chicharito (Kießling 62’)