Bayer 04 go down 4-0 in Liverpool after a strong first half. A missed penalty could have tipped the game in Leverkusen’s favor. But they refrained from blaming others for the defeat. With good reason.
It would have been the perfect alibi. That scene in the 21st minute, when Virgil van Dijk first touched Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong with his foot on the left lower leg and then pressed him above the belt in Liverpool’s penalty area. An action that could well have been classified as a foul worthy of a penalty.
Which, after Bayer’s 4-0 defeat at Anfield, quickly provided a superficially good argument as to why the double winners suffered their first defeat in their fourth Champions League game this season. After all, Bayer would have had the chance to take a 1-0 lead in a strong first half that ended 0-0.
But anyone expecting lamentations from the Leverkusen protagonists was in for a disappointment. Managing director Simon Rolfes did not even consider the situation worthy of a penalty. “There was a bit of contact, for sure. But in situations like that, if you want a penalty, you have to do everything to make sure you fall over properly. There was contact, but is it a penalty?” asked the former professional rhetorically, who is not a fan of quick whistles in the penalty area.
“I already said it last weekend: not every contact or hand situation has to be a penalty,” Rolfes clarified his fundamental position, ‘otherwise we won’t have any more duels in the box soon.’
No cheap alibi
And so Rolfes (“A lead would certainly have done us good”) refused the easy way out, as did Granit Xhaka, who, due to the drop in performance after the break, made it clear: “I didn’t see it. Overall, the referee did a decent job. I don’t think it’s our job to talk about the referee here.”
Xhaka and Rolfes did not want to use excuses. Which speaks for an objective approach to the defeat. A discussion about penalties would have undermined the necessary self-critical analysis of the team’s performance after the break. As strong as Bayer were in the first half, almost completely shutting out Liverpool and controlling the game, their sudden drop in performance against the home side, who were now pressing one-on-one, was puzzling.
Long-standing weakness
It wasn’t just that, with Xabi Alonso’s game plan in a 3-5-2, which had previously worked perfectly, with Xhaka or Frimpong repeatedly extending the back line to a back four. In addition to the many losses of possession after the break that could be explained by Liverpool’s more risky pressing, another familiar weakness crept into Leverkusen.
“The goals we concede are just too easy,” criticized Granit Xhaka, ‘we just don’t run back well enough when we lose the ball.’ And Xabi Alonso also criticized: ”Our defensive intensity dropped. Against top teams, 60 minutes is not enough, you have to play at the highest level for 95 minutes, and today we lacked those extra 30 to 35 minutes.” In truth, even 45 to 50.
These recurring similar mistakes must at least be reduced. Because it is poison for any team if they can’t stop making mistakes. Bayer has to work through the reasons for the recurring periods of weakness internally. In all frankness. And in doing so, such an obvious discussion about penalties could have even been counterproductive.
