In-form Leon Bailey provided another moment of magic to send Bayer Leverkusen back up to second spot in the Bundesliga table following a 2-0 home win over toothless Mainz on Sunday.
The Jamaican hammered home his eighth league goal of the season from distance after 48 minutes and Wendell then added a penalty to put Leverkusen above Schalke on goal difference but still 16 points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich.
"I promise I will stay," Bailey said in a boost for Leverkusen fans worried that his recent stunning displays could tempt big clubs to make a late bid in the January transfer window.
Coach Heiko Herrlich tried to dampen the hype surrounding the 20-year-old.
"Leon Bailey is very dangerous in front of goal but his game without the ball can be improved here and there," Herrlich told a news conference.
"He is a real team player and the team is always the most important thing."
The fight for Champions League places is extremely tight this term in the Bundesliga with just three points separating second and seventh after 20 games of the 34-match season.
The bottom half is similarly tight with 15th-placed Mainz, who created very little in the game, sitting three points above Werder Bremen in the relegation play-off spot and four points above the automatic drop zone.
Wolfsburg are now three points better off than Mainz after snapping their five-game winless run with a 1-0 victory at 10th-placed Hanover in the Lower Saxony derby.
Yunus Malli, a disappointment since his move from Mainz, fired in a wicked dipping effort from distance midway through the second half although Hanover goalkeeper Philipp Tschauner could maybe have done better.
The hosts hit the woodwork late on but it was otherwise a dour affair on a poor pitch.
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