Patrick Herrmann scored twice as Borussia Moenchengladbach swept to its first win over Bayer Leverkusen for 16 years in an emphatic 6-3 away victory in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Gladbach rattled up a four-goal lead in the second half to make sure of its first success in the fixture since beating Leverkusen 1-0 away on March 5, 1994 - a run of 26 games.
Herrmann struck either side of a goal by Roel Brouwers to give Gladbach a 3-1 lead at halftime, Eren Derdiyok pulling one back for the home side. Further goals followed from Juan Arango in the 56th minute and Mohamadou Idrissou in the 60th, either side of a penalty converted by Arturo Vidal for Leverkusen.
Marco Reus made it 6-2 in the 69th minute, before Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling cut the lead a minute later.
"We would not even talk about such a game in our dreams," Gladbach coach Michael Frontzek said. "It was a perfect away match for us. And now we have two weeks to celebrate. We have been waiting a long time for this win."
Herrmann, who was just three years old when Gladbach last beat Leverkusen, said: "We had heard it was a long time since the last win. But we could hardly believe it. We just tried to win."
Leverkusen players struggled to explain their defensive nightmare.
"This just shows what happens if you don't stand well in defense," Michael Kadlec said.
Goalkeeper Rene Adler added: "The defense was a catastrophe. You cannot allow six goals at home. Maybe it's good we got beaten really badly after getting praise for winning at Dortmund. This will bring us back to reality."
Kiessling said Leverkusen tried to keep pushing forward, following the example set by Mainz as it rallied from 3-0 down to beat Wolfsburg 4-3 on Saturday.
"We saw yesterday that Mainz came back from three goals and we just wanted to keep pushing forward. But the defense just didn't work for us today," Kiessling said.
Victory gave Gladbach four points from two games, while Leverkusen has three points.
In Sunday's late game, Stuttgart was hosting Borussia Dortmund.
