Boniface bags brace in Bayer Leverkusen win

Nigeria international forward Victor Boniface netted a brace to help Bayer Leverkusen blow Darmstadt 98 5-1 away from home on Saturday to make it three wins out of three league games for a perfect start to the new Bundesliga season, www.aclsports.com reports.

Boniface, 22, who just arrived in Germany from Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium in the summer, had scored a brace in last week’s win over Borussia Moenchengladbach and also netted in the German Cup once, has hit the ground running.

Xabi Alonso’s men have looked imperious in the opening weeks of the season, and the visit of the opposition who had lost all three competitive games this season made this contest look straightforward on paper.

Leverkusen capitalized, using their fearsome speed on the break to run free. Victor Boniface was at the end of that run as he exquisitely chipped the onrushing goalkeeper to set the ball rolling for a comfortable victory.

Well, the visitors had other ideas as they found themselves level moments later. A looping free-kick to the back post was headed across goal by Christoph Klarer, and Oscar Vilhelmsson showed a bit of resilience to drive it home from close range to silence the crowd inside the BayArena.

After the restart, Exequiel Palacios’ effort from the edge of the box took two deflections on its way into the bottom corner before Florian Wirtz sent a fine pass into the path of Boniface to net his side’s third goal – his fourth goal in two matches.

Moments later, Jonas Hofmann netted his first league goal for the club to increase the home side’s lead, while Adam Hložek rounded off the scoring in what a pleasant performance in the sunshine at the BayArena.

Boniface, who has reportedly been invited to the Super Eagles camp for the final AFCON qualifier against Sao Tome and Principe next weekend, will hope to extend his scoring run in the international fixture.