Bayer Leverkusen drew with Karabakh Agdam (2-2) in the round of 16 of the Europa League. Thus, Xabi Alonso’s team avoided their first defeat this season.
The Azerbaijani club has faced the current leader of the Bundesliga table twice already in the group stage of the current edition of the Europa League. He lost both matches.
As fate would have it, the mentioned teams met each other again at the stage of 1/8 finals. For Karabakh, it was a good opportunity for a quick revenge.
The first match was played on Thursday evening at the stadium in Baku.
As expected, the guests dictated the terms of the game from the referee’s first whistle. Despite this, this did not translate into a large number of favorable scoring opportunities. In turn, Gurban Gurbanov’s players tried to use every opportunity to threaten the goal guarded by Matěj Kovář.
The result of these actions was a goal in the 26th minute of the match. Yassine Benzia was then on the scoresheet, placing the ball just under the crossbar.
Surprise! This is how Karabakh took the lead against Bayer Leverkusen. The stands roared. What a tumult there is.
📺Watch the Karabakh – Bayer match on Viaplay pic.twitter.com/xwEBPSPU7U
— Viaplay Sport Polska (@viaplaysportpl) March 7, 2024
When it seemed that the result 1-0 would remain on the scoreboard until the end of the first half, suddenly Karabakh once again launched a deadly counterattack. The through ball was received by Juninho, who soon found himself in a one-on-one situation with the rival goalkeeper. The Brazilian kept great calm, passing the goalkeeper and putting the ball into the empty goal.
In the second part of the match, Xabi Alonso decided to change his team. Jeremie Frimpong, Granit Xhaka and Florian Wirtz appeared on the pitch.
The latter scored a goal in the 70th minute of the match, which gave the guests hope to reverse the course of the match and equalize.
When the Aptekarzy fans were slowly coming to terms with their team’s first defeat this season, their favorites scored a goal to make it 2-2. Its author was Patrick Schick.
Xabi Alonso’s mental monsters! They did it 💥
3⃣5⃣. match in a row without a defeat ‼️ And it seemed that now it would be a defeat pic.twitter.com/mVCgr1Qfm5
— Viaplay Sport Polska (@viaplaysportpl) March 7, 2024
Ultimately, the match ended in a draw. Thus, the team led by Xabi Alonso extended its excellent series of matches without defeat. At this point, it’s as many as 35 fights in a row.
The return leg will take place on Thursday, March 14 at the BayArena in Leverkusen.