Bundesliga: Boniface Grabs Brace As Bayern Leverkusen Sink Heidenheim
Nigeria’s Victor Boniface continued his fine start to life in the Bundesliga as his two goals kept Bayer Leverkusen in the race with a resounding 4-1 win over Heidenheim on Sunday.
The 22-year-old scored the opener after collecting a pass from Exequiel Palacios and using his power and neat control to pivot past Heidenheim defender Siersleben and drill a crisp low shot beyond Kevin Mueller.
Heidenheim started to apply some pressure after the break and were rewarded when Eren Dinkci collected Jan-Niklas Beste’s pass and found the bottom corner to level.
But Leverkusen were back in front barely five minutes later. The influential Palacios was again the architect, splitting the Heidenheim defence with a sublime pass from his own centre circle, allowing another summer signing, Jonas Hofmann, to finish first-time for his second league goal of the season.
Leverkusen were out of sight in the 74th minute, when VAR adjudged Heidenheim’s Lennard Maloney to have fouled Alex Grimaldo in the box. Despite negligible contact, a penalty was given and Boniface sent it down the middle for his sixth league goal of the season, eight in all competitions.
Amine Adli put the gloss on the win eight minutes from time with the pick of the bunch, a deft lob over Heidenheim keeper Müller, making it 4-1 and completing another fine day’s work for Xabi Alonso’s team, who now have four wins from five in the Bundesliga.
