HEIDENHEIM, Germany: Emiliano Buendia snatched a stoppage-time winner to take Bayer Leverkusen to a 1-0 win at Heidenheim on Saturday, keeping their slim hopes of defending their league title alive.
Eliminated from the German Cup by third-division Arminia Bielefeld on Tuesday, Leverkusen needed a win to stay six points behind league leaders Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Augsburg on Friday.
Xabi Alonso’s side looked out of ideas in attack against the relegation candidates, missing the creative spark of injured playmaker Florian Wirtz.
However, as they have done so often under the Spaniard, Leverkusen scored in injury time to grab all three points, Buendia curling home from outside the box on 91 minutes.
Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah said: “We didn’t play a good game at all... It was difficult today — at the end we needed a bit of luck.”
“We needed to win today, we did it, job done — and now we’re still in with a shot,” Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka told Sky Germany.
The goal was Buendia’s first since arriving on loan from Aston Villa and may prove crucial to Leverkusen’s hopes of catching up with an injury-ravaged Bayern side, with six games in the season remaining.
Elsewhere, goals from Karim Adeyemi, Carney Chukwuemeka, Serhou Guirassy and Jamie Gittens took Borussia Dortmund to a dominant 4-1 win at Freiburg, days out from their Champions League trip to Barcelona.
“It’ll be a difficult week, but every game is winnable,” Dortmund’s Pascal Gross said of the Barcelona challenge.
Adeyemi unleashed an unstoppable drive to put Dortmund in front from an acute angle with 34 minutes gone.
Six minutes into the second half, Adeyemi found Chukwuemeka on the break in acres of space.
The England under-21 international’s shot was deflected into the goal by the Freiburg defense for Chukwuemeka’s first goal since joining Dortmund from Chelsea on loan in winter.
Guirassy came off the bench and sealed the result with a 68th-minute tap-in, his 25th goal for Dortmund in all competitions this season.
Substitute Gittens put the icing on the cake with a pinpoint header with 78 minutes gone, before Maximilian Eggestein grabbed a late consolation for the hosts.
The win moved Dortmund to eighth, one spot behind Freiburg and five points behind fourth-placed Mainz, who drew 1-1 at home with lowly Holstein Kiel.
Kiel, promoted to the top division for the first time this season, took the lead thanks to a fine first-half strike from Alexander Bernhardsson, but Nelson Weiper drew Mainz level with 15 minutes remaining.
RB Leipzig won their first match since dismissing coach Marco Rose, coming from behind to beat a 10-man Hoffenheim at home 3-1 thanks to goals from Benjamin Sesko, Ridle Baku and Yussuf Poulsen.
Hoffenheim took the lead thanks to a swerving strike from the Bayern-bound Tom Bischof 11 minutes in, but lost Leo Ostigard to a last-man foul with 28 minutes played.
Leipzig jumped up to fifth with the win, a point behind fourth, while Hoffenheim are five points clear of Heidenheim in the relegation playoff spot.
Stuttgart kept within sight of the European placings with a dominant 4-0 win at Bochum.
Days after booking a spot in the German Cup final with a win over RB Leipzig, Stuttgart’s victory was their first in the league since early February, after a six-game winless run.
An Ermedin Demirovic hat-trick and a goal from defender Jeff Chabot took Stuttgart to ninth, six points behind the Champions League spots.
Later on Saturday, Werder Bremen host Eintracht Frankfurt.
