After their midweek performance against Feyenoord, Bayer Leverkusen followed up with a win against Wolfsburg which saw them come from behind twice to win 4-3.
A slow start from Leverkusen saw Wolfsburg take the lead through a Nordi Mukiele own goal within four minutes but 10 minutes later Florian Wirtz made it 1-1 with a difficult shot from the edge of the 18-yard box. Die Werkself would maintain their usual control in the game and took the lead in the 32nd minute when Jonathan Tah headed in an Alejandro Grimaldo corner.
However, Leverkusen did not ride off into the sunset after taking the lead and reverted back to a poor trait that they have picked up this season and that is throwing away leads. Five minutes after Tah’s goal, Sebastiaan Bornauw also equalised from a corner, before just before half-time Mattias Svanberg’s long-range effort gave Wolfsburg the lead at the whistle.
The second half start off as quickly as the first as Leverkusen equalised once again with a corner which was converted by substitute Piero Hincapié in a similar manner to Bornauw’s goal. Leverkusen would then dominate the half as Wolfsburg sat back and looked to see out the draw, substitute Victor Boniface had the best chance of the half as his stinging shot was saved by Kamil Grabara.
Leverkusen continued to put pressure on Wolfsburg and, you guessed it, in the 93rd minute, Boniface scored what turned out to be the winner of the game.
The win for Leverkusen now sets up next weekend’s game against Bayern Munich, in Munich, very nicely. Leverkusen go into the tie three points behind Bayern who still have a 100% record after their 5-0 win against Werder Bremen on Saturday.
However, if Leverkusen wants to cement themselves as the team this season, then they need to improve their defence as they have struggled to not only hold a lead but also stop teams from scoring. So far, they have only kept two clean sheets against Carl Zeiss Jena in the DFB Pokal and Feyenoord in the Champions League.
Bayer Leverkusen XI:
Lukas Hradecky (5), Edmond Tapsoba (6), Jonathan Tah (6), Jeanuël Belocian (5), Nordi Mukiele (4), Aleix Garcia (5), Granit Xhaka (6), Alejandro Grimaldo (6), Amine Adli (5), Florian Wirtz (7), Patrick Schick (5)
Others: Piero Hincapié (6), Jeremie Frimpong (5), Martin Terrier (5), Victor Boniface (6), Exequiel Palacios (5)
Wolfsburg XI:
Kamil Grabara (6), Kilian Fischer (5), Sebastiaan Bornauw (6), Cedric Zesiger (6), Jakub Kaminski (5), Maximilian Arnold (5), Mattias Svanberg (6), Ridle Baku (-), Patrick Wimmer (5), Tiago Tomas (5), Mohamed Amoura (5)
Others: Konstantinos Koulierakis (6), Yannick Gerhardt (5), Aster Vranckx (5), Salih Özcan (5), Denis Vavro (-)
GGFN Man of the Match: Florian Wirtz (7)
Wirtz was once again the stand-out player for Leverkusen. The 21-year-old’s well-taken strike brought them back into the game in the first half and from then on he was central to nearly everything Leverkusen did attacking-wise wise then on.
However, after Boniface’s performance against Hoffenheim last weekend, Leverkusen have continued to heavily rely on Wirtz for much of this season and as good as he is, it eventually becomes predictable and against a better team than Wolfsburg, they will be able to neutralise the 21-year-old.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
