A dozen Italian coaches next to each other in a parking lot may not be unusual at Neuschwanstein Castle, near the flower island of Mainau or at the Brandenburg Gate. But in Leverkusen-Küppersteg there is no early classical triumphal goal, no Lake Constance and no fairytale castle. Here is a football stadium called BayArena, which within two games has felt more like a haunted castle, at least for the local team called Bayer Leverkusen. A 0-1 draw against 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga was followed by a 0-1 draw against Atalanta Bergamo in the second leg of the Europa League, which ended in the round of 16.
Each of the Italian coaches traveled 872 kilometers there and 872 kilometers back again this week between Bergamo and Leverkusen. The occupants will not have regretted the ten-hour drive anyway. In the guest block, hundreds of them sang together so fervently, as if it were about entering the quarter-finals of a European choir competition – and somehow that was the case. The Atalanta fans will be allowed to continue singing in the quarter-finals, the coaches will then take them exactly to where Los Bergamo will order in the next round on Friday afternoon.
The Leverkusen fans would also have liked to have sung their song about the “Macht am Rhein” somewhere in Europe in the quarter-finals, but on Thursday the power was not even a mighty one. After a 3-2 first-leg defeat in Bergamo the week before, it would have taken a win by two goals to qualify for their second Europa League quarter-finals after 2020. This required minimum victory was also absolutely within the realm of possibility. Leverkusen was vastly superior in the second half, had a total of three clearest chances to score – and missed them all. As they pushed for the goal they needed with the courage of desperation and with increasing risk, the Italians took advantage of a counterattack in the first minute of injury time to make it 1-0 winner.
This defeat brought sad certainty to Rudi Völler, 61, sporting director who left at the end of the season. He started his career at Bayer in 1996 and will be retiring after 26 years without having won a single title.
For fans of simple truths, the reasons for Bayer’s departure were obvious: Leverkusen’s most important player Florian Wirtz was sitting in the stands with crutches (torn cruciate ligament). Center forward Patrik Schick (calf injury), who has been injured for a long time, and full-back Jeremie Frimpong (torn syndesmose), who is out for the rest of the season, were also not in their jerseys that evening. These three alone have come together for 32 goals and 25 assists so far this season, so it’s no wonder that nothing was possible without them? No, it was actually a miracle how catastrophically the Leverkusen team, who combined well, missed their best chances against Bergamo. The otherwise often brilliant striker Moussa Diaby missed twice alone in front of the goalkeeper Juan Musso by clumsily shooting him. “We had enough chances,” coach Gerardo Seoane began a sentence in the press conference after the game, which his defender Jonathan Tah completed: “But what was missing was a goal.”
With five attackers (Moussa Diaby, Amine Adli, Karim Bellarabi, Sardar Azmoun and Lucas Alario) they tried to force that one goal in the end, but when a bright red beacon flickered in the Atalanta fan block in the first minute of added time, it was clear that Leverkusen, after losing the second round of the DFB Cup at home against the second division team Karlsruher SC, could not prove in the Europa League against Bergamo that they really were a “power on the Rhine” this season.
Qualifying for the Champions League is Bayer 04’s last goal of the season
Relieved of the efforts of these two competitions, however, they can now concentrate on the Bundesliga and on defending third place in the remaining eight games, which would guarantee them admission to the Champions League at the end of the season.
The first of the eight remaining tasks takes them to the duel between the so-called works teams in the Autostadt Wolfsburg on Sunday, where they have to prove against the host VfL after three and a half hours of football without their own goal that they can put the ball in the net able to steer opposing goals. “We have to shake off the two defeats and look at the positive things,” says Tah. “Learning is always crucial,” explains the defender, and as far as that is concerned, the two most recent 1-0 defeats have certainly done something for the Leverkusen footballers.