What the papers say: 'So many great chances'

The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger writes: "The 55th Bundesliga season began with lightning, thunder, driving rain and the first use of video evidence in the history of German football. FC Bayern Munich beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen 3-1 in the opening match of the season but were at times far away from their usual domination.  … The match was almost over after 18 minutes. Only after that, did the intentions of Leverkusen's new coach Heiko Herrlich become clear. When Bayern had the ball Leverkusen pressed the record champions back to their penalty area and they clearly had an effect. A number of misplaced passes put Bayer 04 in positions to shoot. However, Sven Ulreich made close-range saves from both Admir Mehmedi and Karim Bellarabi.
When Lewandowski was brought down by Aránguiz in the box on 55 minutes, referee Stieler initially waved play on but then opted to request video evidence. And, after a delay of one minute, he made an historic decision in awarding the first penalty in the history of the Bundesliga under the new system. Lewandowski scored. Nevertheless, Bayern never dominated this weird game in spite of the early goals. The Werkself were undaunted as they pressed forward towards the Munich goal and succeeded in creating chances. Who knows what would have happened if Volland, Kohr and Brandt had not all missed cast-iron chances before Mehmedi scored to make it 3-1 on 65 minutes. But the match ended with the scoreline at 3-1."

 In the view of the Express, Bayer 04, after going 2-0 down, had "so many great chances chances after that, unlike hardly any of the team before in Munich, but poor conversion possibly prevented the game from taking another course. Admir Mehmedi's consolation goal came too late on 65 minutes. Bayern were able to manage the rain-affected game to celebrate the 232nd victory in the 300th competitive match at the Allianz Arena."

The Kicker assessment reads: FC Bayern started the new 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign with a 3-1 home win against Bayer Leverkusen on Friday night. Above all, it was the Munich club's new signings who took centre stage. All three goals for the record champions stemmed from set pieces. And video evidence played an important part in FCB winning a penalty. In contrast, the Werkself must be annoyed – the visitors were lively and brave but they missed a clinical ability to finish. Bayer only broke through on 65 minutes: Brandt put Mehmedi through in the box for him to fire the ball into the bottom right corner from 14 yards out to the right on 65 minutes. At that point it was of little consolation for the Werkself who were unable to gain their just rewards for their courageous effort. That was evident again shortly afterwards when Kohr headed wide from 11 yards out on 72 minutes. Leverkusen remained lively and courageous in the closing stages but rarely looked like scoring."

The Frankfurter Rundschau highlights, under the headline 'Storm and stress in league opener', the second half performance of Bayer 04: "The increasingly courageous Leverkusen side tried hard to get on the front foot but the penalty converted by Lewandowski crushed the final hopes of the visitors. Nevertheless, they continue to press forward courageously. But they had no luck with their finishing. Brandt twice failed to score in good positions on 54 and 57 minutes. The only reward for Bayer's efforts came from Mehmedi."