Volland lifts Leverkusen to win over struggling Stuttgart
LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — Kevin Volland recovered from a bad miss to score both of Bayer Leverkusen's goals in a 2-0 win over the Bundesliga's bottom-placed club Stuttgart on Friday.
In a meeting between teams who have performed well below expectations, Leverkusen missed good chances, particularly when Volland failed to hit the unguarded net on a counterattack in the 60th minute.
However, 16 minutes later he headed in the opening goal off Kai Havertz's chip in a well-worked corner routine. Volland made it 2-0 with his fifth Bundesliga goal of the season in the 83rd, half-volleying past Ron-Robert Zieler after losing his marker on the edge of the box.
The win lifted Leverkusen three places to 10th after two straight defeats.
Stuttgart nearly conceded an early penalty when Emiliano Insua batted the ball away with his arm as Lars Bender surged into the box. The referee signaled a spot kick but then gave a free kick when video review showed the contact was slightly outside the box.
Stuttgart had been looking for a win to lift it out of the relegation zone but was left ruing the Lukas Hradecky save which denied a powerful shot from Mario Gomez early in the second half.
