Bundesliga: Leverkusen move up to fourth

Bayer Leverkusen climbed above Hannover and up to fourth in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win at the Niedersachsenstadion.

Stefan Kiessling ended his goal drought by scoring the opener before Son Heung-min doubled Leverkusen's lead.

Ceyhun Gulselam pulled a goal back for the Reds, but Karim Bellarabi ensured Roger Schmidt's men claimed all three points and a confidence boost ahead of their Champions League clash with Monaco in midweek.

Buoyed by three consecutive wins without conceding, and by a strong record in front of their own fans, Hannover would have been expected to take the game to their visitors, but Leverkusen had other ideas.

They pressed high up the pitch and gave Hannover little space in which to work.

Kiessling came close twice to ending that drought in the first half before he set up Bellarabi for another good chance.

A defensive mistake by Roberto Hilbert then presented Hannover's Hiroshi Kiyotake with the biggest chance of the first half, but he was unable to beat Bernd Leno in a one-on-one situation 10 minutes before the break.

Just after half-time, Kiessling's chance to end his drought arrived and he took it, turning in Gonzalo Castro's cross to score for the first time in nearly 860 minutes.

The goal seemed to come as a relief to the whole of the Leverkusen team and they set about building on it. A second goal arrived in the 58th minute when Son took the ball inside and found the bottom right-hand corner with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Gulselam gave Hannover hope just a minute later when he headed in Kiyotake's free-kick, but Bellarabi restored Leverkusen's two-goal cushion when he was sent through on goal by Hilbert.

He beat the man he was playing alongside for Germany on Tuesday - Ron-Robert Zieler - to put the Werkself back in command.

There was never even another hint of a Hannover recovery as Leverkusen continued to dictate matters, although they were unable to add another goal to round off a dominant away win.