Bayer 04 Leverkusen have won again after five matches without a win: Diaby was the man of the evening with two goals and two assists in the 4-0 win over Real Betis Things got unnecessarily heated again in the closing minutes:
Without a real centre-forward, Bayer Leverkusen welcomed Real Betis. Due to Alario’s absence (with muscular problems only on the bench), Diaby played in his place, Bayer’s coach Gerardo Seoane had come up with something: Adli played up front and Wirtz a bit more suspended behind him. So playful solutions were needed – and Bayer looked for them right from the start. Especially on the offensive, the Werkself showed great versatility. Paulinho, playing for the injured Bakker (bone oedema in the ankle), Diaby, Adli and Wirtz changed positions almost constantly. Behind them, Demirbay and Andrich, who played for Palacios compared to the 2-0 defeat against Wolfsburg, secured the offensive performers.
Bartra just clears
At first Real Betis, who were changed in ten positions by coach Manuel Luis Pellegrini after their 3-0 defeat at Atletico, were able to keep the Werkself’s offensive efforts away from their own penalty area. After 20 minutes, however, Bartra had to clear for the already beaten keeper Rui Silva and scrape Adli’s shot off the line.
Frimpong’s goal doesn’t count
Bayer continued to combine and tried to find success with quick short passing. Diaby’s pass, however, did not reach Frimpong quickly enough, and due to an offside position, the goal of the full-back did not count after VAR intervention (24.).
Bayer did not let this discourage them and continued to play forward. Again and again, ball wins in the centre initiated the attacks, but too often the last decisive pass was missing. Ball losses were rare, but one by Andrich almost went in the eye, but Hradecky was on guard against Fekir (35th).
Bayers lightning-clean counterattack
Betis did not score much more than that, the visitors rarely made any forays into the final third of the attack. However, Betis did venture forward once before the break and promptly caught a clean-cut counter-attack – and all four of Leverkusen’s variable attacking players were involved: Paulinho sent Adli on his way. In the penalty area, the youngster served the even younger Wirtz. Diaby volleyed home the cross at the far post (42nd minute).
Betis comes, Bayer scores
After the break, the visitors became more active and came out of the dressing room with a lot of pace. However, the Bayer defence remained alert, stood compact and did not allow anything dangerous. Leverkusen increased their lead with the first real chance of the second half – and Diaby was the scorer again. First Wirtz shot at his own man (Hincapie) in the sixteen, but Diaby took the rebound from the edge of the penalty area. The shot was deflected decisively by Victor Ruiz (52.)
With the reassuring lead behind them, Bayer pulled back a little and offered Betis more space. But the visitors did not know how to use them. After Fekir’s free-kick, Bayer could have scored the equaliser, but the crossbar prevented it (67th).
Diaby sets up twice
In the final phase, Leverkusen waited for the all-decisive counterattack and could have done so through Diaby (71st) or Demirby (80th). Nevertheless, it was only exciting to a limited extent, also because Betis remained too harmless offensively apart from Bartra’s header in the final phase (85th), before Wirtz (86th) and the substitute Amiri (90th) finished off two counterattacks neatly – both times Diaby was the provider of the assist.
After five matches without a win, Bayer finally won again and extended their lead in Group G. The only downside was that the team was not able to score a goal. The only downer was that Demirbay was shown the red card in the final minute after an altercation with Fekir – as was his opponent.
In the Bundesliga, Bayer host Hertha BSC on Sunday (3.30pm), while Betis face FC Sevilla in a city derby on Sunday evening (9pm) The Europa League continues on 25 November, with Leverkusen hosting Celtic Glasgow at 18:45 and Sevilla hosting Ferencvaros Budapest at the same time.
