3rd matchday
Nine points, eleven goals: Leverkusen ready for Bayern
Victor Boniface (2nd from left) scored twice in Bayer’s win against Darmstadt. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
Bayer Leverkusen is ready for the duel with FC Bayern Munich. The Werkself also won the third game of the season impressively. After the break on September 15th, we’re going to Munich.
On the 3rd day of the game, Bayer celebrated their third impressive win with a 5-1 (1-1) win over Darmstadt 98 and now has nine points and a strong 11-3 goal. For the first time, Leverkusen has already scored in double digits after three games. The brave but mercilessly inferior Hessen meanwhile go into the break without a point.
New signing Victor Boniface with his second brace in a row (21st/61st), world champion Exequiel Palacios (49th), international Jonas Hofmann with his first goal for Leverkusen (68th) and Adam Hlozek (83rd), who came on three minutes earlier, scored the goals for Bayer. The lilies had equalized with the first Bundesliga goal of only 19-year-old Swede Oscar Vilhelmsson (25th).
It is only the third time in Bayer’s Bundesliga history that the Werkself have started with three wins. In the previous times ten and 20 years ago, they ended up third and fourth. This means that the goal for the season, “Champions League qualification”, has been achieved, but there is a growing feeling that many around the BayArena would only be partially satisfied with that this year.
Bayer for the third time with the same starting eleven
Coach Xabi Alonso has found his formation once and started the game for the third time with the same starting XI. And this group, which was surprisingly homogeneous despite four newcomers, also tried to take away the hope of a surprise similar to that of co-promoted Heidenheim the day before when they played 2-2 in Dortmund and to wear him down with constant ball circulation.
For Darmstadt it was almost exclusively a question of not offering any attack surface and running into spaces from the start. The southern Hessians did that with passion. They threw themselves into every ball – but the bulwark only lasted 20 minutes. However, the 1-0 came from a bitter situation for the outsider. After their first corner, captain Fabian Holland and Fabian Nürnberger smacked together, Jeremie Frimpong quickly passed the ball to Boniface and the Nigerian finished a half-court solo with a lob.
But four minutes later, the guests used their standard strength to equalize – even though they were briefly outnumbered due to Nürnberger’s departure. But after Christoph Klarer was dropped, Vilhelmsson got the better of Palacios in the air and pushed the ball over the line.
Leverkusen turns up after the break
Now Bayer had to drill a thick board again. Until the break, the game resembled a handball game around the circle. However, the Werkself couldn’t find the crucial gaps and so it remained 1-1 at the break despite 14:3 shots on target and 74 ball possession for Bayer.
It was quick to take the lead again after the break and the visitors were unlucky again as Palacios’ shot deflected twice and became unstoppable. Now the balance of power was clear. Darmstadt had to come a little more, but Bayer forced the preliminary decision through Boniface on submission from Wirtz – and that was far from enough.