Leverkusen ease to victory at Kiel to trim Bayern's lead

Bayer Leverkusen tightened their grip on second in the Bundesliga as they cruised to a 2-0 victory at struggling Kiel on Saturday.

The victory allowed the German champions to cut Bayern Munich's advantage to five points before the leaders host third-place Frankfurt on Sunday.

Bayern had ground out a 0-0 draw at Leverkusen in the previous round and the teams have been drawn to meet in the Champions League round of 16, with the first leg on March 5.

Leverkusen dominated at last-place Kiel. The visitors took the lead after 10 minutes. Home goalie Timon Weiner pushed a cross from Amine Adli to Patrik Schick, who tapped home.

Adli added a second on the stroke of half time, collecting a pass from Florian Wirtz and chipping Weiner.

Mainz moved up to fifth with a 2-0 home victory over St Pauli.

Lee Jae-sung poked home a rebound to give the hosts a 67th minute lead. Paul Nebel hit the second on a breakaway deep into added time.

In Moenchenglabach, home goalie Jonas Omlin was sent off after 28 minutes for bringing down Phillip Tietz who was running in unchallenged at goal.

French striker Alexis Claude-Maurice made Borussia pay with a 15-minute second-half hat-trick as Augsburg won 3-0.

Bochum crept out of the bottom two with a 1-1 draw at Wolfsburg, where both goals came from headers after corners.

Erhan Masovic gave the visitors a 50th minute lead. Mattias Svanberg forced home an 81st minute leveller.