Edmond Tapsoba brace turns Bayer Leverkusen's cup scare into a 5-2 win

Edmond Tapsoba scored twice and Bayer Leverkusen came back from a 0-2 deficit to beat 1. FC Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB-Pokal. The centre-back struck in the 41st and 49th minutes, and Leverkusen reached the round of 16 for the fourth time in a row.

Tapsoba's role in the comeback

Tapsoba finished with an 8.46 rating, which fitted the size of his influence on a night when Leverkusen could easily have been dragged into a much uglier problem. A defender scoring twice is unusual enough on its own, but both goals arrived when the match still needed turning around.

SPORT1 described him as the scorer who helped avert a humiliating exit, while the same report also noted that Nürnberg, coached by Miroslav Klose, were not rewarded for a strong performance. That tension is the right way to read the game: Leverkusen were second best for spells, yet the goals that decided it came from the back line and from the bench.

Leverkusen's other finishing touches

Patrik Schick added the 70th-minute penalty after coming off the bench, Jonas Hofmann scored in the 78th minute as a rotation option, and Lucas Vázquez made it 5-2 in the 89th minute. Leverkusen's depth did the rest once Tapsoba had dragged them level.

The comeback also lined up with the response they needed after the 0-3 loss at TSG Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga before this tie. This was a cleaner night in cup terms, and the result sends them into the round of 16 again with Tapsoba's brace as the headline fact from Bayer Leverkusen vs 1. FC Nürnberg.