With a comfortable win against a harmless FC Villarreal, Bayer Leverkusen reached the playoffs of the Champions League.
Bayer deservedly won 3-0 (2-0) in the last game of the league phase on Wednesday evening and celebrated their first home win of the current Champions League season. Double packer Malik Tillman (12th/35th) and Alejandro Grimaldo (57th) scored the goals for Leverkusen.
Leverkusen now against BVB or Piraeus
The playoff matches will be drawn on January 30th (12 p.m.). As table 16th. In the German duel, Bayer will either face Borussia Dortmund (17th place) or the Greek representative Olympiakos Piraeus (18th place) and will have home advantage in the second leg.
For FC Villarreal, who showed a desolate performance in the first half, it was no longer important in terms of sport: with just one point, the Spaniards, second to last, had no chance of reaching the playoffs before the game.
After the 1-0 win over Werder Bremen on Saturday, Bayer coach Kasper Hjulmand changed his starting eleven to two positions: Ezequiel Fernández and Tillman started for Jonas Hofmann (ineligible to play) and Ernest Poku (bench). Jonas Omlin, who had been loaned out the day before to replace the injured regular goalkeeper Mark Flekken, sat on the bench. Villarreal made eight substitutions after the 2-0 league defeat against Real Madrid – which was also noticeable in the “Yellow Submarine” game.
Keeper Tena gives Leverkusen the lead
Leverkusen controlled the game from the start, pressed hard and created their first chances. After a precise pass from Leverkusen’s Aleix Garcia behind the defensive line, Grimaldo (10th) moved into the penalty area, but then decided on a cross pass that was intercepted by Villarreal. Ibrahim Maza (11th) fired the first shot on goal for Bayer from 19 meters, which flew past the goal on the left.
Villarreal’s goalkeeper Arnau Tenas helped a lot with Leverkusen’s opening goal. After a short goal kick, Tenas got the ball back, waited too long and shot at the running Tillman (12th) while attempting to hit the ball, from whose left leg the ball bounced into the goal. Bayer stayed on the trigger. After the Spaniards lost the ball again in their own penalty area, Loïc Badé (20th) hesitated for too long and shot at a defender.
Double aluminum bad luck for Bayer
After 22 minutes, the previously pale guests had their first opportunity when Renato Veiga headed a free kick from Nicolas Pépé next to the right post – it was the guests’ only significant chance in the first half. Because then only Leverkusen played again.
After a cross pass from Grimaldo, a shot from Maza (25th) from 13 meters just missed the right post. In the next scene, Bayer was very unlucky: After a low shot from Maza (26th), the ball hit the left post, bounced from there against the back of keeper Tenas and then against the crossbar – only then did Tenas get hold of the ball just in front of the goal line.
Villarreal barely got out of their own half and continued to make major mistakes in defense. Patrik Schick (30th) missed Tenas with a volley, but shortly afterwards the dominant Leverkusen team made it 2-0. After a Grimaldo cross, Schick headed the ball towards the edge of the penalty area, where the unchallenged Tillman (35th) was standing and hit the bottom right corner with a direct shot. In the last minutes of the first half, Bayer slowed down a bit. At the break, Leverkusen only had to blame themselves for not taking advantage of the numerous great opportunities.
Grimaldo puts the lid on it
After the half-time break, Villarreal came out of the locker room with a different body language and went into the duels more courageously. When Pépé (55′) dribbled into Bayer’s penalty area, Ezequiel Fernández made a determined tackle and probably made contact with the right winger, but referee Espen Eskås showed Pépé a yellow card for a dive – probably also because the 30-year-old went down very theatrically.
Shortly after this excitement, Leverkusen struck again. Lucas Vázquez crossed from the right side to the second post, where Grimaldo (57′), who was left alone, took the ball directly with his strong left foot and placed it in the near corner. Bayer then had the game back under control and let the ball run. Pépé (64th) had another chance, but his attempt at the near corner didn’t cause any problems for Leverkusen goalkeeper Janis Blaswich. In the last 20 minutes the game was a bit disjointed after many changes, Leverkusen didn’t let anything go.
Leverkusen now at Eintracht
The next game for Leverkusen is on Saturday (January 31st/3:30 p.m.) when Bayer visits Eintracht Frankfurt in the league.
