Kiessling on song as Leverkusen make light of Shakhtar

Stefan Kiessling struck twice as Sami Hyypiä's men confidently saw off the Ukrainian champions to move into the top two at Group A's halfway stage.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen impressively saw off FC Shakhtar Donetsk to climb up to second spot in UEFA Champions League Group A at the section's halfway point.

Stefan Kiessling broke the deadlock with the game's first clear chance, planting a header beyond Andriy Pyatov's grasp after 22 minutes before Sami Hyypiä's men turned the screw after the restart. A penalty from captain Simon Rolfes was followed by Sidney Sam's composed left-foot finish before Kiessling's second of the evening compounded the agony for Shakhtar, who drop to third place in the group after starting the day at the head of the pack.

The game quickly fell into the expected pattern; the home side pushing and probing, the Pitmen sitting back and waiting for their moment to pounce. It was the Bundesliga side's tactics that first paid dividends. Kiessling started the move himself with a bustling run from his own half, and when the ball was played out to Giulio Donati the full-back curled in a cross that the Leverkusen No11 dispatched with a towering header.

Despite falling behind Shakhtar continued to play the waiting game, with Bernd Leno in the home goal seeing very little of the ball. The goalscorer nearly doubled the lead minutes before the interval but his header from a Sebastian Boenisch cross skimmed just over the bar. Then out of nothing Mircea Lucescu's men almost brought it level – Douglas Costa fed Alex Teixeira into the right of the area but the Brazilian sent his wicked effort into the side netting.

The second half began in dramatic fashion. Shakhtar captian Darijo Srna bundled over danger man Kiessling as a cross came into the penalty box, and opposing skipper Rolfes made no mistake from the spot to score for the third UEFA Champions League game in succession. A matter of minutes later it was 3-0, Sam calmly slotting home Son Heung-Min's perfectly timed-pass.

The introduction of Bernard gave the visitors more attacking threat, and he only just failed to poke Luiz Adriano's low centre into the net on 67 minutes, but it was that man Kiessling who had the final say, tapping in after Pyatov spilled an Emre Can cross to complete a miserable evening for the visitors.

Culled from uefa