Hopeful Felix Magath had to accept a setback in the relegation battle when he came back as head coach on the coaching bench at Hertha.
Two weeks after his debut win against TSG Hoffenheim from the home office, the 68-year-old lost with the Berliners to third-placed Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 (1-2) on Saturday and his team is still stuck in the relegation zone.
The weakened Bayer team, who previously won only once in five competitive games, consolidated third place in the table and underpinned their claim to participate in the Champions League. In front of 23,557 spectators in the BayArena on Saturday Lucas Alario (35th minute) and Karim Bellarabi (40th) scored for Bayer, Vladimir Darida (42nd) scored for the visitors.
Magath, who admitted before the game he was a little nervous ahead of the first appearance, had made two changes despite announcing he had no reason to change. The loss of Marvin Plattenhardt, who was in good form recently, was painful. Maximilian Mittelstädt took his place in the team, as did Darida.
But after a quarter of an hour, the Berliners had to accept the next setback. Goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow was unable to continue playing due to injury and was replaced by Marcel Lotka. The 20-year-old, who played for Bayer Leverkusen in his youth, made his fourth appearance in the Bundesliga and saved Hertha from going behind after a shot by Karim Bellarabi (21′).
You can read all the details about the game here in the live ticker!
After a training camp in East Westphalia, Magath equipped his team with a compact defense and set about unsettling the favored but weakened Leverkusen side with pinpricks. However, this was only partially successful. The hosts had more shares in the game and, despite a few failures, were better occupied individually.
Center forward Alario took advantage of this, scoring the 1-0 with a remarkable right-footed shot into the top left corner from a tight angle. It was the Argentinian’s 40th Bundesliga goal and Bayer’s 100th goal against Hertha in the Bundesliga.
Bellarabi made it 2-0 with a low shot five minutes later before Darida almost leveled the score.
In a game that was also characterized by many bad passes and injury interruptions, the guests also had to do without the injured defensive stabilizer Niklas Stark. Patrik Schick celebrated his comeback for the Leverkusen team after an injury break of more than five weeks. The hosts saved the undisputed victory sovereign over time.
