Darmstadt 1 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen: Julian Brandt strikes as Bayer Leverkusen win at Darmstadt

Posted Sunday, February 14, 2016 by PA

Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to beat Darmstadt 2-1 and move up to fourth in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Sandro Wagner gave the hosts a 28th-minute lead on a heavy pitch at the Stadion am Bollenfalltor, but Aytac Sulu's own goal helped Leverkusen get back on terms.

Julian Brandt scored the winner in the 77th minute for Roger Schmidt's men, who took advantage of Hertha Berlin's defeat in Stuttgart to move into a Champions League qualification berth.

An early Admir Mehmedi effort was deflected wide as Leverkusen started confidently in the driving rain.

A Luca Caldirola header was too easy for Bernd Leno, who also kept out Tobias Kempe's free-kick as Darmstadt got the wind in their sails.

The opening goal came not long after when Jan Rosenthal's acrobatic effort was only parried by Leno and the ball sat up invitingly for Wagner to head in.

Peter Niemeyer sent a shot just wide of the left-hand post from 20 yards as Darmstadt went close to adding a second, but Leverkusen levelled on the hour mark, with Hakan Calhanoglu causing problems with a free-kick on which Sulu got the final touch, under pressure from Omer Toprak.

Jerome Gondorf teased another fine save out of Leno as Darmstadt refused to let themselves be demoralised by Leverkusen's equaliser, but a quick counter-attack, coming after what appeared to be a foul on a Darmstadt player at the other end, was finished off by Brandt inside a muddy penalty area to earn the visitors all three points.