Bayer Leverkusen effortlessly secured a 2-0 first-leg win against Olympiakos Piraeus in the Champions League – and after the 0-0 draw, could soon face FC Bayern Munich four times in six weeks.
After the “Werkself” were drawn against the record champions last weekend in their home stadium for the semi-finals of the DFB Cup, the probability that the German record champions will also be Leverkusen’s opponents in the round of 16 of the Champions League is 50:50. The draw on Friday will decide whether Bayer will face Bayern or Arsenal FC; the games will take place on 10/11. and 17th/18th March.
This means that the Bayer-Bayern duels would cover exactly the clash in the Bundesliga, which will take place on March 14th in the BayArena. Leverkusen and Munich had already played against each other in the round of 16 of the premier class last season, and the record champions won twice with 3-0 and 2-0. The quadruple of the teams coached by Kasper Hjulmand and Vincent Kompany would conclude the cup semi-finals on April 21st.
If Leverkusen’s Jonas Hofmann has his way, the factory players would rather play against Arsenal London: “If I could wish for it, it would be Arsenal, because for me it has a bit more flair to fly to London.”
The start against Olympiakos points to a great game – but things turn out differently
The first half against Olympiakos was divided into two parts: a turbulent first eight minutes and the following 38 minutes in which almost nothing happened. After his brace in the first leg, Patrik Schick already had two great opportunities in the early stages to clearly put things in his team’s favor early on. But both his header (4th) and his attempted lob in front of the goal (6th) went past the opponent’s goal.
Overall, Olympiakos was the more offensively oriented team, and the Greeks posed a threat with Chiquinho’s good long-range shot, which just missed the corner of the Leverkusen goal (8th). After that, Bayer stood very deep and had little trouble with the opponent’s offensive efforts, but tried to move forward with long ball relays, which was not successful either. The result was a game that wasn’t really viewer-friendly.
Grimaldo’s bar cracker is the only highlight
At the beginning of the second half, Gelson Martins caused a moment of surprise; Janis Blaswich was still wide awake when he volleyed from a tight angle and was able to save with a flying save (49′). For a moment it was clear that Olympiakos was the team that was obliged to score – but it wasn’t more than a moment and the game petered out again.
Until the 62nd minute, when Alejandro Grimaldo brought the crowd out of their potential premier class nap with a crash into the crossbar. The Leverkusen left-back slammed the ball onto the crossbar from close range and an acute angle. Meanwhile, Olympiakos only had half chances at most, such as a long-range shot from Martins that went wide of the goal (72′). There was nothing to indicate that the Greeks could equalize the 0-2 deficit from the first leg.
Leverkusen’s Rolfes: “Of course you always want to play better”
And that’s how it was. Piraeus’ effort was noticeable, but it was so harmless that there was not even a hint of tension for a second. Leverkusen, for their part, failed to do anything for their own self-confidence on several counterattack opportunities (Schick missed his third chance in the 92nd minute), which may have been shattered after last weekend’s 0-1 loss at Union Berlin.
The statements after the game were accordingly: “Of course you always want to play better, but the most important thing is the result and that we are further. This is absolutely Priority 1“said sports director Simon Rolfes.”We are not eliminated, we are still in the Champions League. So: can we do better? Yes, we can, we have already shown that. Today we can all be happy that we are top 16 in Europe.“
So after 90 minutes of administrative mode on Saturday, an increase in performance is needed in order to win again in the Bundesliga against Mainz 05 (3:30 p.m.) – and especially in the possible quadruple duel against Bayern.
