What a game in Leverkusen: First Wolfsburg leads, then Bayer, then Wolfsburg again - and in the end the champions win. Thanks to Boniface. Teammate Xhaka warns.
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- Bayer Leverkusen defeated VfL Wolfsburg 4:3 after a spectacular match and thus defended second place in the Bundesliga table.
- Coach Xabi Alonso's team are unbeaten in the league for 23 Sunday games.
- However, Granit Xhaka and Co. are not satisfied with their performance. The national team captain speaks plainly after the final whistle: "We can't defend so naively."
After the next last-minute win and goal spectacle, Bayer Leverkusen's leader Granit Xhaka immediately becomes a warning. "A huge wake-up call for us all. Three points count in the end, but we can't survive with this performance," said Xhaka on the streaming service DAZN after the 4:3 (2:3) against VfL Wolfsburg, which revealed one thing above all: the German champions currently have a defensive problem. "We can't defend so naively. That's not possible, that's not good enough," said Xhaka.
Thanks to their mentality of believing in success right to the end, Leverkusen nevertheless extended their own Sunday streak in spectacular fashion and secured their place at the top of the Bundesliga for the time being. After trailing twice and despite puzzling defensive slip-ups, the Werkself celebrated as substitute Victor Boniface scored the winner in the third minute of stoppage time.
"That can't happen to us too often"
"It's good that we have the mentality to come back like that. But it can't happen to us too often," warned national team player and defensive boss Jonathan Tah. Coach Xabi Alonso's team are now unbeaten in 23 Sunday games. Wolfsburg, on the other hand, will have to look to the bottom after their third defeat in their fourth game of the season.
Nordi Mukiele (5th minute) had initially given Wolfsburg the early lead with an own goal. Leverkusen then turned the game around with goals from Florian Wirtz (14th) and Tah (32nd) - before Sebastiaan Bornauw (37th) and Mattias Svanberg (45.+1) turned it around again. But Piero Hincapie (49) and then Boniface ensured the hosts' success in a crazy game. Wolfsburg's Yannick Gerhardt was shown the red card in the 88th minute after a foul on Jeremie Frimpong.
Spectacular course of the game
The match offered almost everything, but it wasn't boring. Partly due to the defensive lapses of both teams, a game developed that both coaches liked less, but the spectators liked all the more. Alonso started with new signing Mukiele for the first time - and the Frenchman was unintentionally conspicuous after just five minutes when he headed a cross from Mohamed Amoura into his own goal.
Anyone who thought that the early goal would shock Leverkusen was wrong. Bayer immediately took control of the game and combined cleverly through midfield, while Wolfsburg struggled to find a way through Leverkusen's play. Wirtz, who had been in top form for weeks, took advantage of this by slotting home a low cross from Xhaka to equalize. Around a quarter of an hour later, Tah followed suit - Wolfsburg had left him completely unchallenged to head home from a corner.
Leverkusen with inexplicable lapses
You might have thought that Leverkusen, who were getting stronger and stronger, would finally take control of the game. But if there was one thing this game was, it was unpredictable. Just five minutes after Tah's goal, the Bayer defense fell asleep after a corner and Bornauw was allowed to score a header with comparative ease. Shortly before the break, no Leverkusen player was able to stop Wolfsburg's Svanberg.
Just how little Alonso, in particular, had liked his team's defensive behavior became apparent immediately after the break. The Basque brought on Frimpong for Mukiele and Hincapie for Jeanuël Belocian - and it paid off immediately. Again it was a corner where one team acted carelessly. This time it was Wolfsburg again, with Hincapie heading home shortly after coming on to make it 3:3. But it was not enough. "It won't be nice to get up tomorrow," said Wolfsburg's Patrick Wimmer, who saw the sending-off for Gerhardt as a decisive advantage for the Werkself.
