Leverkusen beats Nuremberg 4-1 in Bundesliga

BERLIN (AP) — Bayer Leverkusen reclaimed fourth place in the Bundesliga with a 4-1 with at relegation-threatened Nuremberg on Sunday.

Emir Spahic opened the scoring with Leverkusen's first shot on target in the 16th, only for Marvin Plattenhardt to equalize eight minutes later with a direct free kick from 25 meters (yards).

Omer Toprak headed against the post as Leverkusen sought a response, before Stefan Kiessling missed another great chance after some good work from Julian Brandt.

Toprak set up Sebastian Boenisch for Leverkusen's second goal in the 48th and Heung-min Son ran the length of the pitch after a Nuremberg corner for Spahic to seal the win with 10 minutes remaining.

"He never scored a goal in top-flight football before so congratulations to him," Leverkusen sporting director Rudi Voeller said.

There was still time for Roberto Hilbert to add another in the 87th, as Leverkusen reclaimed the last Champions League qualification spot from Wolfsburg, which had provisionally gone ahead on Saturday.

"Borussia Dortmund next week will be another caliber," Voeller said after the side's second consecutive win under interim coach Sascha Lewandowski. "Then we'll see if we've really turned the corner."

The result left Nuremberg second from bottom, one point above Eintracht Braunschweig, with three games to play. The bottom two are automatically relegated.

"We simply don't have the quality at the moment to win matches like this," Nuremberg goalkeeper Raphael Schaefer said after his side's eighth defeat from nine games. "In the end we didn't even believe in ourselves anymore."

Relegation rival Stuttgart was hosting Schalke in Sunday's late game.