Bayer Leverkusen is continuing its race to catch up in the Bundesliga without young star Florian Wirtz and appears to be ready for Bayern Munich. The Werkself won 3-2 (1-1) at Werder Bremen on matchday 24 and are unbeaten in the Bundesliga for three games.
Mitchel Bakker (34′), Jeremie Frimpong (56′) and Adam Hlozek (83′) scored for Xabi Alonso’s team and turned the game around, for Werder the goals from Marvin Ducksch (34′) and Niclas Füllkrug (86′) ., hand penalty) in the end too little.
The Werkself reduced the gap to a place in the European Cup to six points. Under coach Alonso, Bayer steadily climbed up from the penultimate place in the table and now secured ninth place. Next week Alonso welcomes his ex-club Munich. Despite the bankruptcy, Werder remains in eleventh place in the secured midfield.
“We’ll be ready,” Alonso announced, although Bayer only played the round of 16 first leg in the Europa League against Ferencvaros Budapest (2-0) three days ago. In front of 41,000 spectators, Bayer then immediately countered Ducksch’s surprising lead, even without super talent Wirtz, who was rested after his comeback after a long injury break in Bremen.
Ironically, Bakker, who was not in the squad in the Bundesliga last time because he was late for the final training session against Hertha BSC, equalized with a shot under the bar.
Ducksch had given the home side a somewhat flattering lead just a short time before. Because Werder hadn’t achieved much until then, the major personnel worries made themselves felt – with captain Marco Friedl, Romano Schmid and Christian Groß, three regular employees were missing due to illness. In addition, only eight instead of the allowed nine reserve players sat on the bench.
Werder Bremen sniffs the draw
Leverkusen, who changed five positions compared to the Budapest victory, only rarely managed to consistently play to their actually superior footballing class. But sometimes the ability of the guests flashed, but Frimpong was lucky with his goal. Bremen’s Niklas Stark deflected the Dutchman’s shot from unsustainable.
Werder fought, bit – and repeatedly set painful accents. Lukas Hradecky was just able to parry a shot from national team player Füllkrug in the Bayer goal. So the fans didn’t see a high-class game, but it was still an exciting game. After Hlozek’s goal, Füllkrug immediately shortened the lead, and Werder fought vehemently for the equaliser.
Werder Bremen – Bayer Leverkusen: The data for the game
