Lech responded to their 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Crystal Palace on matchday one with a couple of emphatic league victories, but they returned to European action facing a much tougher task. They acquitted themselves well early on, but things started to fall apart as the half-hour mark approached.
A lengthy VAR check was required to determine that Ibrahim Maza’s shot had struck the hand of substitute Terry Yegbe, and Patrik Schick stepped up to take the resulting spot kick and passed it into the bottom right corner with ease.
Leverkusen made it two just a few minutes later when Mateusz Lis saved both Nathan Tella’s initial shot and Malik Tillman’s follow-up, but on the second occasion Tillman was able to bundle the ball in.
Lech weren’t without attempts of their own, but they were punished again when Mateusz Skrzypczak pulled Schick down off the ball in the area, giving the Czech striker another chance from the spot, which he again placed low into the corner.
There weren’t really any signs of respite for Lech as the second half got underway, though at least their opponents were beginning to squander chances.
Schick failed to get a clean enough connection on his header to complete a hat-trick, before Aleix Garcia and Robert Andrich forced saves out of Lis.
The hosts eventually started to control possession and territory, but still found themselves open on the counter, and Lis needed to be on great form to deny Diego Moreira on two occasions.
A deserved fourth did finally come for the visitors late on when Moreira was played through, but this time chose to lay the ball off for Maza, who curled past the goalkeeper to seal the deal.
Leverkusen head – for the moment, at least – to the top of the league phase standings, with this fifth-ever match against a Polish side in Europe being their fifth win.
Contrastingly, never victorious against German opposition, Lech sit at the other end of the table, and facing Sunderland and Benfica in their next two matches offers little hope of a resurgence.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen)