Three days after the dramatic semifinals in the Europa League, Bayer Leverkusen received the next blow to the neck. The Werkself gambled away a comfortable lead in the 2-2 (2-0) win over Rhenish rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach with coach Daniel Farke on the sidelines and have now been waiting for a win for six competitive games. Before the season finale, Leverkusen is sixth in the table and one point ahead of VfL Wolfsburg.
Amine Adli (15′) and Kerem Demirbay (20′) scored for Bayer, Jonas Hofmann (58′) brought the visitors closer, Lars Stindl (90′) equalized after a bad mistake by Nadiem Amiri. At 1: 2 Mitchell Bakker had messed up.
After Wolfsburg’s defeat at Freiburg, Leverkusen passed Lower Saxony on Saturday but failed to capitalize on Borussia. Bayer defender Piero Hincapie saw the red card after a brutal foul on Julian Weigl (90+4).
The foals, who have only won once over the opponent’s place this season, turned up the heat only after the break. Before the game had the Rheinische Post with a report fueled the ongoing separation rumors, but denied sports director Roland Virkus.
“We have to keep going,” said Bayer coach Xabi Alonso twice after the Europa League dream had burst: “Cheer up and keep going.” And in the BayArena, which was again sold out, the Werkself, with Adli starting instead of Sardar Azmoun, took advantage of the first compelling chances to score after a slow start.
Diaby misses the decision
First, Hincapie leveraged the Gladbach defensive network with a flat through ball to Adli, who eluded Marvin Friedrich in a running duel and executed it from an acute angle. A little later, Demirbay headed in the six-yard box. Both times, Jan Olschowsky, who, like the previous week at BVB (2: 5), replaced the injured regular goalkeeper Jonas Omlin, made an unhappy figure.
With the onset of downpour, Borussia, who were playing with a back three and in which Farke relied on world champion Christoph Kramer and the recovered top striker Marcus Thuram, tried to take over more of the game. But only national player Hofmann presented Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky (39th) with serious problems.
On the other side, Moussa Diaby (41st) miserably missed the preliminary decision, the Frenchman shot a rebound over the empty goal. A little later, Demirbay received his fifth yellow card.
Bakker and Hradecky bring Gladbach back
Both teams came out of the dressing room unchanged – and initially the game remained unchanged. Leverkusen was defensively compact, Gladbach remained unimaginative.
But then Bayer made it exciting again. Mitchel Bakker put Hradecky under pressure with a back pass, Hofmann bailed the ball and slotted into the open goal.
Both teams were now pushing for the next goal, Hincapie (59′) and Diaby (60′) immediately missed the best chances. On the other side, Stindl had the equalizer on his feet (85th) – but then he still scored.
Bayer Leverkusen – Borussia Mönchengladbach: The voices of the game
Xabi Alonso (Bayer Leverkusen manager): “The first 20 minutes were good, we just played and found the space. But maybe we made the big mistake of relaxing a bit after the second goal. But that’s Bundesliga, you always have to be ready. In the second part We lost a bit of respectability in the first half – and in the second half too. So the draw is deserved.”
Daniel Farke (Borussia Monchengladbach coach): “We saw a game that ended in a fair result with a draw. Leverkusen were the better team in the first half and deserved to lead. We were too inaccurate in possession, too sloppy in front of both goals. In the second half Our two goals came from errors, but we deserved the equaliser. A good away point from a very, very good team. We’re going home satisfied with the result and the second half.”
