Bayer Leverkusen 4 - 0 Hamburger: Knabel's nightmare start

Posted Saturday, April 04, 2015 by PA

Bayer Leverkusen made it a debut to forget for new Hamburg coach Peter Knabel, thrashing the northern Germany side 4-0 at the BayArena.

Two goals each from Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Kiessling earned Roger Schmidt's men a comfortable Bundesliga win which keeps them on course for a berth in the Champions League next season.

It could have been much worse for Hamburg, who now have only seven games remaining to find a way of preserving their top-flight status.

With new coach Knabel sat on the bench for the first time, Hamburg were hoping for a significant change in their fortunes - but they instead found themselves up against it from the very first minute.

Leverkusen were not in a very sympathetic mood, with a wave of early attacks showing they meant business.

It took them just seven minutes for one of those attacks to result in a goal.

Bellarabi and Castro made the most of a weak pass from Hamburg defender Johan Djourou and the latter capitalised by finding the net.

A deflected effort from Tin Jedvaj almost doubled Leverkusen's lead as the hosts continued to assert their authority, visibly keen to wrap up victory as quickly as possible.

Kiessling doubled the lead just before half-time, with the German forward's spectacular diving header from Castro's cross giving Leverkusen a cushion at the interval.

Worse was to come for Hamburg just 10 minutes into the second half when Kiessling got his second and Leverkusen's third.

Castro was again involved, although his shot was saved by Rene Adler before Kiessling converted the rebound.

Castro saw a shot deflected just over the crossbar, before he got a deserved second from Bellarabi's pass.

Leverkusen still did not show any sympathy for the struggling visitors, Kyriakos Papadopoulos heading against the post.

Josip Drmic also wasted a good opportunity as Leverkusen threatened to run riot, but they had to settle for four goals - and three more points in their quest for a top-four finish.