The ambitious Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen is in danger of losing sight of its goals for the season. The 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen isn’t enough for the Werkself’s claims. The focus could be on coach Gerardo Seoane during the international break.
Lukas Hradecky was one of the first Bayer pros in the crowd, while Gerardo Seoane left the stadium in contrition. The coach of the Leverkusen Bundesliga team looked dejected after the 1-1 (0-0) win against Werder Bremen and drew a devastating conclusion after ten competitive games this season. “You have to be concerned, and we are too,” said the Swiss when asked about the table situation and rated the current situation at Sky as “unsatisfactory”. After the early end in the DFB Cup, Leverkusen is still in the running in the Champions League. In the Bundesliga, on the other hand, after four defeats, two draws and one win in 15th place, the team lags far behind the claims.
“It’s a brutally dangerous situation that everyone in the team should be aware of,” said midfielder Robert Andrich. The 27-year-old mourned the many missed chances, especially in the first half against Bremen. In a duel that was wild at times and marked by many counterattacks, Leverkusen, who played offensively, gave up the longed-for first home win of the Bundesliga season late in the game. Kerem Demirbay gave the Werkself the lead after 57 minutes with a dream goal. The fact that the hosts did not consistently expand the 1-0 lead and instead withdrew too much ultimately ended in their undoing. “The failure to convert chances was the decisive factor. It’s been a burden on us all season,” said Demirbay. The crossbar hit by Leverkusen’s Sardar Azmoun (88th) is symptomatic.
But Bayer also had big problems against the North Germans. Demirbay: “Bremen does it really well with their long balls and they ruin our game. We just have to do better.” The brave Bremen team, who are still unbeaten away from home, fought back and deservedly so. True to their trend of scoring goals in the last quarter of an hour, the Hanseatic League also secured a point late in Leverkusen through Milos Veljkovic (82nd). The fact that keeper Hradecky was unable to clear a header from Füllkrug and the ball fell at Veljkovic’s feet ready to score was doubly bitter from Bayer’s point of view.
It is characteristic of the Werkself that, with the exception of Atlético Madrid’s victory in the Champions League on Tuesday, they once again failed to take the lead over time. “We failed to score goals in the first half, we could and should have led by two or three goals,” said Andrich angrily, who himself headed the crossbar just before the break.
Now that hopes have been dashed again that the win against Atlético will finally bring security, nobody knows what possible momentum this next winless game could have in the upcoming international break. Most recently, Bayer’s sports director Simon Rolfes publicly backed his coach after the 1-0 defeat of Club Brugge in the Champions League opener. Immediately after the game against Bremen, none of the officials turned themselves in.
Irrespective of all the pledges of loyalty, Seoane knows that at some point the results have to be right for the ambitious factory club. “As a coach, I’m responsible for scoring points. Nevertheless, I think the team played very united. That also applies to the games in Berlin and against Madrid.” Unfortunately, there was a lack of efficiency against Bremen. “Of course, if you don’t score points, that’s dangerous, and we have to face that.”
