GERMANY: “It’s my job” – Portugal striker Paciência bags a double in Frankfurt win

Portuguese forward Gonçalo Paciência scored his first brace in German football with two first-half goals as Eintracht Frankfurt recorded an impressive 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Friday night.

Paciência took his tally in the Bundesliga this season to five goals, which is already two more than he managed in the whole of last season as injuries blighted his first year in Germany. With the three points, Frankfurt leapfrog Leverkusen into 7th place in the standings and remain unbeaten in four matches following a tough start to the season.

Paciência put the hosts ahead after just three minutes, getting on the end of a neat throughball from Danny da Costa and coolly slotting past Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. Former Porto frontman Paciência was at the heart of the action and could have scored another five minutes later but his header flashed wide of the post.

The Portuguese was not to be denied, however, and when a penalty was given after his goal-bound shot was adjudged to have been illegally blocked with a hand, Paciência stepped up to send Hradecky the wrong way for his second on 16 minutes. The performance of the 25-year-old meant Frankfurt did not miss André Silva, who missed the match through injury.

“There’s always a lot of focus on the strikers, which is why I’m happy to have scored two goals again today,” Paciência said after the match. “It’s my job to help the team with goals.”

Former Sporting striker Bas Dost got the third for Frankfurt late on and with three in-form strikers vying for places there may be plenty of rotation in Adi Hutter’s frontline. “It does not matter who I play with in attack,” Paciência said. “We all understand each other very well and always want to win. We have many games, everyone gets their time.”

By Sean Gillen