He was the match winner in the 3-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt. First Victor Boniface opened the can with his opening goal in a complicated game before the break, then he contributed two assists – and was more efficient than ever in a Bayer jersey.
Records 17 points scorer in 15 games: Victor Boniface. IMAGO/Chai vd Laage
He got off to a lightning start in the Bundesliga. After seven matchdays, Victor Boniface had seven goals. A top balance sheet. Especially when you consider that the 22-year-old only came to Leverkusen from Saint-Gilles in the Belgian league in the summer and had played for Bodö/Glimt in Norway a year earlier.
Performance dip overcome
After his goal in the derby against 1. FC Köln (3-0) at the beginning of October, things became quieter for the storm bull, who had to wait until matchday 13 in the league before he scored again in the 1-1 draw against BVB. But the Nigerian international has now put his unsurprising dip in performance behind him. In the draw in Stuttgart he prepared the 1-1 equalizer well and was now the match winner in the 3-0 win against Frankfurt.
“Frankfurt did well at the beginning. We didn’t find that many solutions. They were aggressive and forced high ball wins. We had a hard time creating chances,” analyzed offensive player Jonas Hofmann, which is precisely why Bonifaces was so important 1-0: “The lead was a bit of a can opener.” Midfield strategist Granit Xhaka underlined this with the words: “The 1-0 win was brutal for us.”
Hit brought back memories
It was a hit that brought back memories for the shooter. “I think it was a nice goal. It reminded me of a goal I scored against Leverkusen in the Europa League last season,” explained the attacker, “I dribbled a little and then put the thing in.”
The similarity was that Boniface shot deliberately and did not rely on his enormous shooting power. And even though this time Frankfurt defender Tuta helped with his passive stance, as did Eintracht keeper Kevin Trapp, for whom the shot was not unstoppable, it was a clever goal.
And one that started a game for Boniface that was anything but typical for the right-footed player. The center forward acted against the Hessians with an efficiency he was not used to. The 1-0 was his first shot on goal in this game. Trapp was just able to deflect his second to the side after the break, but still couldn’t prevent Jeremie Frimpong from scoring to make it 2-0.
Most completions in the league
These were Boniface’s only two shots in the game, with one goal and one assist. For comparison: So far this season he has needed 7.8 shots on goal per goal scored and has recorded 71 attempts, by far the most attempts in the league. Munich’s top scorer Harry Kane follows with “only” 60. However, the Englishman has already scored 20 goals, so he scored with every third attempt.
Boniface’s rate against Frankfurt was 50 percent, even higher than Kane’s. Calculated over the entire season, he only achieved just under 13 percent in the league. Against Frankfurt, Boniface capped his performance with his second assist when he first held the ball strongly in the center circle and then played it perfectly into the path of the artistic goalscorer Florian Wirtz. He finished with a fantastic lob.
It was Boniface’s 17th scorer point in his 15th Bundesliga game. A strong record with a rate that could be even better in the future if Leverkusen’s number 22 shows the efficiency from the Frankfurt game more often.
2023-12-18 08:59:08
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