Bayer Leverkusen climbed into third spot in the Bundesliga table thanks to a comfortable 4-0 triumph over relegation-threatened Hannover.

Leverkusen were on top from the first whistle, and Kyriakos Papadopoulos twice came close to scoring with headers as he watched his first effort get cleared off the line before sending the ball wide just a few moments later.

The Greek defender's misses would not come back to haunt the hosts, who broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when Omer Toprak was gifted the space to head home from Hakan Calhanoglu's corner.

Ron-Robert Zieler came to the rescue to deny Heung-Min Son after the attacking midfielder had been allowed to sprint into the box unchallenged, but the Hannover goalkeeper could not prevent Leverkusen from doubling their lead before the break.

Stefan Kiessling set up the opportunity by holding off a couple of challenges before releasing Julian Brandt, who kept his composure to slot the ball past Zieler.

Any hopes of a second-half fightback from the visitors were quickly dashed after the break as Papadopoulos made up for his earlier misses to tap home after Kiessling had rattled the crossbar with a header.

Hannover struggled to offer any attacking threat as Leverkusen continued to dominate the exchanges, and a comfortable win was wrapped up with less than 20 minutes remaining.

To the frustration of the visitors, the assistant referee failed to spot that Kiessling had drifted into an offside position, and the striker took full advantage by tapping home from Lars Bender's pass.