Europa League – Bayer Leverkusen against Qarabag with a last-minute double blow: Werkself celebrates after a wild comeback

Thank goodness: The comeback kings of Bayer Leverkusen averted a sensational round of 16 knockout in the Europa League with a lot of luck and great fighting strength.

As in the first leg (2:2), the Bundesliga leaders came back after a 0:2 and won 3:2 (0:0) against the Azerbaijani series champions Qarabag Agdam in the BayArena at home. Striker Patrik Schick turned the game around with a brace in stoppage time and shot Bayer into the quarter-finals.

“It may not have been our best performance today. But then you have to win with heart and passion,” said coach Xabi Alonso on RTL: “So much can always happen in football.”

Jeremie Frimpong (72nd) and Schick (90th+3/90th+6) saved Bayer in the last ditch, Leverkusen remained undefeated in their 37th competitive game this season – with a lot of trouble. Abdellah Zoubir (58th) and Juninho (67th) had previously given the ice-cold guests the lead. In the final phase, Qarabag was outnumbered after Elvin Jafarguliyev’s emergency stop (64′).

After SC Freiburg’s elimination, Bayer is the only German team remaining in the competition, and on the way to the final in Dublin (May 22nd), attractive opponents such as FC Liverpool and AC Milan await in the draw on Friday in Nyon. The quarterfinals will take place on April 11th and 18th.

Alonso corrected his “mistake” from the first leg and brought his top performers Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka back into the game, but gave the other two long-running favorites Jonathan Tah and Alejandro Grimaldo a break. The Spaniard demanded “high tempo” and finally scored his first goal from Borja Iglesias in the center of the attack in his third start.

The winter newcomer had enough chances to do so: his first header went over the crossbar after 67 seconds, and the second after 133 seconds. He waited too long for one shot (6th), another was too unplaced (8th).

Compared to the weak first half in Baku, Leverkusen showed hurray football from the start, and Alonso’s team had great chances like that of Piero Hincapie (9th) and Amine Adli (10th) every minute. The goal scoring ratio was 7:0 after just ten minutes.

But as a result, the guests fought their way more and more into the encounter – and Bayer had to cope with a bitter loss. A few hours after he was not considered for the national team, Jonas Hofmann had to leave the field with pain in his left front thigh (28th), and Exequiel Palacios came on to replace him.

Qarabag moved at eye level, threw himself into every ball with self-sacrifice – and was rewarded: Jeremie Frimpong lost the header duel against Zoubir, cup keeper Matej Kovar looked unhappy on the line.

Alonso reacted and brought offensive power with Grimaldo and first-leg hero Patrik Schick. Frimpong won the running duel against Jafarguliyev, who had to leave the field with a red card after a VAR check. Juninho shocked the BayArena with a 2-0 defeat, Frimpong kept hope alive with the goal.