Ten-man Bayer Leverkusen moved up to fourth in the Bundesliga yesterday with a 3-2 win over Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Despite having midfielder Simon Rolfes sent off, Leverkusen took the three points to move into fourth. They took the lead through a goal by midfielder Sidney Sam, but Fortuna levelled on 40 minutes after a header by Nando Rafael.

But the visitors stayed level for barely a minute as Andre Schuerrle put the hosts ahead at half-time after he followed up from a super cross from Sam.

Leverkusen then lost Rolfes, who came on for Sam on 63 minutes, just 120 seconds later as he threw himself into a reckless tackle on Adam Bodzek.

Bayer responded immediately as right-back Daniel Carvajal squared to give Gonzalo Castro the simplest of tap-ins on 67 minutes.

Bodzek pulled one back for the visitors with a superb strike on 86 minutes, but it was too little, too late.

Bundesliga
B. Leverkusen vs F. Dusseldorf 3-2; Werder Bremen vs Mainz 2-1.

Leading standings: B. Munich 27; Schalke, E. Frankfurt 20; B. Leverkusen 18; B. Dortmund 16; Hanover, Werder Bremen, Mainz 14; Hamburg 13.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.