Bayer Leverkusen continued their strong start to the season on Saturday as they held of a valiant fightback by Bochum to secure a thrilling win on the road.
Arturo Vidal and Renato Augusto put the visitors in control with two goals in the opening period before Patrick Helmes made it 3-0 just after the hour.
Bochum refused to lie down, however, and pulled goals back through Stanislav Sestak (79) and Sinan Kaloglu (81) before Anthar Yahia saw red with six minutes remaining to all but end the hosts' hopes of bagging the leveler.
Leverkusen's fourth win in six games sees them climb to second in the standings on 12 points while Bochum remain on five points and sit 13th.
Leverkusen wasted no time in seizing the initiative as with just six minutes on the clock Vidal rattled home a free-kick via the upright.
Bruno Labbadia's men doubled their lead after 21 minutes, Augusto firing home confidently into the roof of the net after fine approach play by Stefan Kiessling.
Helmes appeared to have put the game to bed after 61 minutes as he finished off a flowing Leverkusen counter-attack, but the blow seemed to goad the hosts into life.
With 79 minutes on the clock Sestak ran onto a long ball and beat Leverkusen goalkeeper Rene Adler from 11 yards, while the visitors' lead was trimmed to one goal two minutes later when Sinan headed home after Mimoun Azaouagh's shot had hit the post.
But the fightback came to a juddering halt just three minutes later as Yahia was given a straight red for a bad tackle on Leverkusen substitute Sascha Dum.
