After the sobering 0: 3 in the round of 16 of the Champions League near Bayern Munich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen also loses the Bundesliga. The 0: 2 (0: 1) on matchday 25 against Werder Bremen is all the bitter from a Bayer perspective, because leaders Bayern Munich lost his home game against VfL Bochum with 2: 3. Due to the defeat, pursuer Leverkusen missed the chance to significantly shorten the gap of eight points to Munich.
“The game was bad“, Leverkusen’s coach Xabi Alonso stated soberly:” EIn shit day for us.“Romano Schmid (7th minute) achieved the Bremen leadership in the initial phase. Substitute Justin Njinmah (90.+4) was made for a counterattack.”We didn’t get into the game right from the start“, Bayer defender Jonathan Tah stated in the sports show talk:”We lost a lot of balls, in our own possession of the ball did not have control as usual.“Even worse for the German Doubles winner: Florian Wirtz, who only substituted during the break, had to go off the pitch after a foul after ten minutes and could first fail.
Leverkusen’s frustration was Bremen’s joy: After five competitive game defeats in a row, Bremen collected three points and confidence. 33 points mean 12th place and thus secured midfield in the Bundesliga. “Today we rewarded ourselves“Werder coach Ole Werner was happy at the sports show microphone:”Away from the German champion, that’s good for the team, for morality.“
Alonso rotates Leverkusen against Bremen out of balance
As in Munich, Alonso was not entirely uninvolved on the Leverkusener. In seven positions, the successful trainer rotated his team against the bankruptcy in Munich. Not unusual for the Spaniard, but without Wirtz, Frimpong, Grimaldo and Co. Leverkusen were missing.
And then Bayer made a big mistake in Munich: Mario Hermoso hidden the ball after a throw -in near his own penalty area. Leverkusen’s back row switched too slowly in the head. Bremen briskly combined the ball profit to the five -meter room, where Schmid safely finished against Lukas Hradecky to 1-0.
Battle hit by Leverkusen’s Garcia
Werder played this perfectly into the cards. The guests contracted their own penalty area and lurked on counterattacks. Leverkusen was missing the last drive and the privacy in the new formation to play the dense Bremen ranks apart. Hardly a ball went towards the guest goal, it wasn’t dangerous. The Alonso team was lucky for this when a second Bremen goal was whistled back by Milos Veljkovic (31st) after a corner ball due to offside.
Only shortly before the break whistle, Leverkusen came to a really dangerous goal scene through a standard. Aleix Garcia (43.) turned a free kick from 18 meters over the wall to the left crossbar. At the break, Alonso reacted, brought fresh forces with Nordi Muikele, Exequiel Palacios and especially Florian Wirtz.
Wirtz-Schock shortly after the substitution
But Wirtz did not get to give the Bayer game a new shoot. In the event of an impetuous, Bremen’s Mitchell Weiser Weiser stamped the ankle of Leverkusen’s playmaker hard in the middle of the field. Wirtz no longer really got up and had to leave the field limping ten minutes after the restart. Weiser got away with a yellow cards – but his fifth. “For me this is a clear red card“In the view of the scene, Leverkusen’s defense chief Tah stated. Alex Grimaldo came into the game for Wirtz.
As a result, the hosts did not manage to shake the sand out of the gear. Inaccurately, unhappy and sometimes impetuous Leverkusen ran behind. Bremen patiently waited for his counterattacks and would have been almost rewarded. But Oliver Burke (65th) was offside during his dusting goal.
Interim result From Munich Push Bayer
It took until the 70th minute before Leverkusen took off again. Patrik Schick (70th) just slid past a cross from left. After the corner, the Werder defense blocked a shooting attempt by Grimaldo (71.). Shortly afterwards goalkeeper Michael Zetterer made a violent shot from Palacios (72nd) around the post.
Bayer built energy because the fans also woke up in the ranks when they learned from Bayern Munich’s gap against VfL Bochum. Palacios (74.) gave the next attempt. Zetterer steered the skillful shot from 20 meters very much around the post. It continued every minute. Jonathan Tah (77th) headed a corner just over the crossbar.
Werder strikes again late
It crackled in the Leverkusen arena, but the decisive spark for a performance explosion was missing. Bayer fought. Schick (90.+2) once again sailed past a cross of the substitute Jeremie Frimpong. Bremen struck again: the substitute Keke Topp and Njinmah played a counterattack clever to 2-0. Bremen cheered the sixth away win. Leverkusen went down and beaten for the second time in a row – and has to worry about Wirtz, who left the stadium on crutches for further studies.
Leverkusen in Stuttgart, Bremen against Gladbach
Leverkusen is now going into the round of 16 second legs in the Champions League on Tuesday (11.03:2025, 9 p.m.) in the local arena against Bayern Munich, even if Tah is fighting: “We cut everything in as long as there is the chance and the chance is still there.“In the Bundesliga it goes to VfB Stuttgart (7.30 p.m.) on Sunday evening. Werder Bremen Borussia Mönchengladbach on the Weser (3:30 p.m.) receives a day earlier.