Bürki Hakimi Akanji Hummels Guerreiro Delaney Witsel Sancho Reus Brandt Alcacer Hazard back on the bench, LP and Schulz will miss the game. That results in two FBs that are good for our offense but who might be more vulnerable in defense. That's a bit of a worry against an offensive minded team like Leverkusen. It will be interesting to see where the top teams are at this point. First our game, then later today Leipzig against Bayern.
1:0 Alcacer. We needed almost 25 minutes to wake up when Leverkusen had the control. Very nice ball into the box from Hakimi.
Good first half should be 3-0... we had one flurry of shots right on net where the goalkeeper saved two in a row brilliantly.. then of course we dont get the obvious hand ball.. Im sure if it was Bayern they would have.
We should have scored 3 goals but all of these chances came over a rather short period. We didn't play with dominance for the majority of the half. We are also lucky that Leverkusen either executed the last ball poorly or that they chose so often to go for the goal of the month outside of the box, sometimes from the 25-30 m range when their teammates were in better positions. Sancho and Brandt don't have a good game except that short phase. What was also visible was the difference in gegenpressing in the first 20 minutes. Leverkusen were way more aggressive. As soon as we imitated that, we also won balls, made life hard for them and started to create chances right away.
Alcacer struggled as well. I don't know what the point of this high amount of long balls to him against Tah is. Tah is just as fast and has the clear physical advantage. Always results in a lost ball.
Game ends 4:0. Seems a bit too high and still not undeserved. Leverkusen looked just as open in the second half like we did under Bosz. It wasn't even a very impressive team performance and that result shouldn't distract from the issues we still have. But it was just good enough to create quality chances that you can convert. The quality of the chances is one positive, the other is that Sancho still amasses scorer points despite an average performance for his standards.
Something tells me Lucien Favre did not intend to have a possession battle with Peter Bosz. He just wanted to maintain control of his final third and use the wings to counter and create chances. I want to give LF the credit but damn it's against one of most naive coaches in top European football FFS. Hummels once again the most consistent player alongside Paco of course. Brandt was awful. Hakimi and Gurreiro were really good and I hope to see them again soon. Our favourite FB partnership if I'm not mistaken. I'm curious to see who starts against Barca given that so many players not named Hummels, Reus and Sancho played almost 90 min. Most interesting is the situation with Gotze....at least for the tabloids.
A great win and the team played with intensity. Hummels was great and Hakimi/Raphael showed they can play full back against tricky wingers. Reus looked sharp and back to form, not just because of his goals. Sancho is still assisting regularly though he is not yet at his best. Brandt is not yet match fit, but he needs the minutes. Delaney and Witsel were both very good too. Favre was smart and played an intelligent game. We all know Bosz is dogmatic and naive. He leaves his team exposed and the best way to beat them, is to wait it out. Hummels, Reus, Hakimi and Raphael were the big pluses going forward. The only problem is that this match does not answer our problems. It does not answer if we an go and dominate teams, dominate possession and beat teams that won't be suicidal. Watching Bayern and they have gone and absolutely destroyed Liepzig away from home. Dominated the ball and made them look second rate, but Thiago gave away a simple pass and they conceded a pen soon after it is 1-1. This is what happens when you play passing players in midfield. You dominate the game and create more chances, but even the best might make a sloppy pass, which leads to a goal. However, the odds are in your favour, because as a top team you need to win games like that.
Well Leipzig were much better in the 2nd half and probably should have won it. Werner had a couple of good chances. What I like, is this match was played at a very high intensity. The Bundesliga and German players need matches at that intensity if they are to do well in the CL. A draw is a good result for us, it puts us ahead of Bayern and just a point behind Leipzig.