Thursday, December 9th, 2021
EL group victory was already certain
Bayer’s B-Elf is punished late and without consequences
Bayer Leverkusen will score two goals in the final Europa League game – none will be valid. Instead, opponents Ferencvaros hit Budapest late for victory. And gives the Werkself their first international defeat of the season – and a historic opportunity.
A present for Peter Stöger at the end: With the second suit, Bayer Leverkusen ended a strong group stage in the Europa League with an unexpected defeat. At Ferencvaros Budapest, the Werkself, who had changed to nine positions, lost 0: 1 (0: 0) after two strikes. So they gave the Hungarians coached by long-time Bundesliga coach Stöger their only preliminary round points. The Tunisian Aissa Laidouni headed the winning goal for Budapest (82nd).
Bayer had already made it through and won the group. Thus, the team of coach Gerardo Seoane does not have to intervene again until March 10th in the round of 16, while Champions League relegated players such as Borussia Dortmund or FC Barcelona have to play in the second round in February – and could be eliminated.
In addition, Leverkusen also missed a nice record: With two goals, the Rhinelander would have made the best offensive of the group stage for the second time in a row. That is what Olympique Lyon did instead – Bayer’s ex-trainer Peter Bosz can look forward to this record for the second time in a row.
Two goals, both whistled
Seoane had rotated almost completely. Only defender Edmond Tapsoba and midfielder Exequiel Palacios remained in the starting line-up. Regular goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, young international Florian Wirtz and striker Patrik Schick, who caused a sensation in the 7-1 win against Fürth on Saturday with four goals, even stayed at home.
Goalkeeper Andrej Lunew was used for the first time in a competitive match for Bayer and was checked very early by his own teammate: After a catastrophic back pass from Odilon Kossounou, he reacted quickly out of the gate and successfully pushed Tokmac Nguen (4th).
But overall, the Bundesliga team set the tone with zero degrees and snowfall. Bayer tried to play his combination game, but found only a few gaps against well-graduated hosts. In the 24th minute, defender Panos Retsos celebrated his first competitive goal in more than three and a half years, but it was disallowed because of a foul by template provider Karim Bellarabi.
After the move, Budapest got more involved in the game. But Bayer met again – and again the goal was not valid: Paulinho was just offside (56th). After the Brazilian was put down, ex-national player Nadiem Amiri forgave twice from a good shot position (69th), as in the first round. Instead of the winning goal, the Werkself conceded the 0-1 when Laidouni was allowed to head in unhindered.