体坛英语新闻：Leverkusen defeats Rapid Wien 3-0 in UEFA Europa League

BERLIN, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Home side Leverkusen cruised to a 3-0 win over Rapid Wien to wrap up their third win in Group K and a ticket for the round of 32 in UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

The "Werkelfs" sits on second position in Group K after this powerful performance over Rapid Wien, earned by goals of Jens Hegeler, Andre Schuerrle and Manuel Friedrich.

Leverkusen staged a perfect start on home soil at BayArena, as Jens Hegeler utilized a rebound that bounced off the bar, to tap into the opener goal from very close range.

With the neat lead behind Leverkusen tried to control the match but they failed as the Austrians nearly levelled the score after promising opportunities by Terrence Boyd, Stefan Kulovits and Christopher Trimmel before the end of the first half.

After the interval Leverkusen again staged a bright start as Leverkusen' s Andre Schuerrle volleyed home a clearance attempt by Wien' s defence from outside of the box to extend the lead with eight minutes into second half.

The 2-0 lead by the hosts took the wind out of Wien' s sails, as Leverkusen' s Manuel Friedrich smoothed the 3-0 win with his header at the 66th minute to seal the deal ahead of time.

Thus Leverkusen eliminated Rapid Wien from Europa League with zero points out of four matches.

"I am happy with the outcome of the match but I think we staged a poor performance over long periods of the game," Leverkusen coach Sascha Lewandowski said.