Leverkusen (dpa) – Wrapped up in a winter jacket, national player Florian Wirtz accepted the congratulations of his teammates. After his brace and an assist, the 21-year-old was in a great mood and played a big part in Bayer Leverkusen’s 5-0 (3-0) win in the Champions League against RB Salzburg. Thanks to his performance, the German football champions remain a hot contender for direct qualification for the round of 16 in the Champions League.
With ten points from five games, the Rhinelanders, who have been undefeated in the European Cup in front of their home crowd for more than two years, have very good prospects of a place among the top eight clubs. In addition, two of the remaining three games will take place in the BayArena. In front of 29,211 spectators, the strong Wirtz (8th/foul penalty/30th) as well as Alejandro Grimaldo (11th), Patrik Schick (61st) and Aleix Garcia (72nd) scored the goals for the clearly superior Leverkusen team.
«It was a lot of fun again. “We gave it a lot of gas from the first minute, brought our qualities to the pitch and had a lot of dominance,” said Wirtz on the DAZN streaming service.
Two changes to the starting line-up
In the second Champions League home game of the season, Leverkusen’s starting eleven almost gave itself up. Due to the loss of six injured players, including four offensive players in Victor Boniface, Amine Adli, Martin Terrier and Jonas Hofmann, coach Xabi Alonso had hardly any alternatives . Matej Kovar replaced Lukas Hradecky in goal, and Robert Andrich replaced Aleix García in midfield. There were also three junior players on the bench – Ben Hawighorst, a 16-year-old.
Three days after the 5-2 win against 1. FC Heidenheim, the Leverkusen team started concentrated, enthusiastic and offensive against the young Salzburg team, which only has one win under its belt. Against Heidenheim, the champions were already 2-0 down after 20 minutes, and that shouldn’t happen to the home team in the Champions League.
Two standards lead to leadership
With an early standard double strike, the hosts steered the game in their direction. First, Wirtz was successful after a much-discussed hand penalty, four minutes later Grimaldo followed up with a directly converted free kick with his inimitable shooting technique. At this point, Salzburg had to do without their offensive player Karim Konate. The 20-year-old left the field with a grimace of pain on his face.
Leverkusen had the game firmly under control, but had to be on their guard when counterattacking. Wirtz, who was in a good mood, showed his class on the third goal when he didn’t let three opponents stop him and shot the ball into the far corner. Granit Xhaka, Grimaldo and Exequiel Palacios had further good opportunities for the Bayer team, but RB keeper Alexander Schlager was still one of his team’s best players.
Finally, backup center forward Schick also scored his first goal in the Champions League. The replacement for the injured Victor Boniface made it 4-0 after an hour and has now scored five goals in the last three games. Substitute Garcia scored after Wirtz’s preparatory work to make it 5-0.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:241126-930-300387/2
