Three neck blows against Monaco
Bayer 04 pay dearly for slapstick and a few centimetres
2/16/2023 11:04 p.m
A curious own goal by goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky puts Bayer Leverkusen behind early in the second round of the Europa League, after which the Bundesliga repaired the blunder – and left the field as a loser against AS Monaco. Now it will be very difficult in the second leg.
After a controversial slapstick own goal by captain Lukas Hradecky, Bayer Leverkusen are threatened with early failure in a European competition for the second time this season. Despite a brilliant solo by Florian Wirtz, the Werkself, who were relegated from the Champions League, lost the curious first leg of the first knockout round of the Europa League 2-3 (0-1) against AS Monaco. This puts Leverkusen in a difficult starting position for the second leg next Thursday in the Principality.
Goalkeeper Hradecky was pushed too hard in the ninth minute by former Schalke and Gladbacher Breel Embolo. Especially annoying for Hradecky: Already at the 0:1 at the start of the premier class in Bruges he was to blame for the only goal through a serious mistake when he fell into the goal with the caught ball.
This time, Frenchman Moussa Diaby (48′) and Wirtz (59′) turned the game around with his first goal in six games after a ten-month injury break. National coach Hansi Flick and DFB sporting director Rudi Völler clearly enjoyed the solo in the BayArena stands. The game tipped over again completely with goals from Krépin Diatta (74th) and Axel Disasi (90th + 2). Shortly before Monaco’s winning goal, Leverkusen’s Adam Hlozek hit the post (87′). When Diatta equalized in the meantime, only defender Edmond Tapsoba’s heel had prevented the scorer from being offside by a few centimetres.
The comeback of striker Patrik Schick after three and a half months from the 88th minute was pleasing for Leverkusen. At Monaco, Bayern loan Alexander Nübel held up well, Cologne-born Ismail Jakobs was used for 20 minutes, and long-time Leverkusen player Kevin Volland sat the entire game on the bench.
Hradecky stumbles the ball into his own goal
You can hardly fall behind more unhappily than Bayer. Hradecky put himself in needless distress after a back pass from Jonathan Tah and tried to control the ball parallel to the goal line. Embolo bumped into the Leverkusen keeper, who stepped on the ball and stumbled it into the goal. He waited in vain for the Israeli referee Orel Grinfeeld to whistle for a free kick. The use of Embolo was at least borderline, the scene was checked, but Grinfeeld’s decision to score was not classified as a gross misjudgment.
The Bundesliga eight then had problems creating serious scoring opportunities against the physically strong French. Nübel parried four shots in the statistics in the first round. However, only one action in the 35th minute was dangerous, when he tipped the ball away from Nadiem Amiri, who was ready to score, after a sharp cross from Diaby. On the other side, Hradecky got the opportunity to rehabilitate himself a bit and held off Diatta (44′).
In the second half, however, Bayer was there immediately and deservedly turned the game around with two outstanding individual actions. First the strong Diaby pranced out two defenders in the middle and tunneled Nübel from a short distance to equalize. Then Wirtz outplayed four opponents and didn’t give the Bayern Munich keeper a chance. But Monaco fought back – and was even able to celebrate the victory very late.