Compared to the 2-1 home win against Eintracht Frankfurt, head coach Xabi Alonso made eight changes to his starting XI, with just Jonathan Tah, Piero Hincapie and Alejandro Grimaldo keeping their places. The early stages in the atmospheric Stade du Roudourou in Guingamp, around 100 kilometres from Brest, passed without any notable goalscoring chances for either team. The Werkself were unable to turn their dominance into dangerous attacking moves - until the 24th minute!
Jonas Hofmann played a superb through pass to Florian Wirtz, who spun with the ball at his feet and finished cooly into the bottom left-hand corner. The 21-year-old has now netted in each of his three appearances in Europe's premier club competition so far, bagging the opener on each occasion. The game then quietened down a little - until Brest equalised out of nowhere. Pierre Lees-Melou, standing in the centre, volleyed a high cross straight into the left corner (39'). The teams went into the break with the score at 1-1.
The first chance after the restart took 13 minutes and went to Brest's Kenny Lala. After just over an hour, head coach Xabi Alonso was ready to make his first changes of the evening, bringing on Jeremie Frimpong, Granit Xhaka and Amine Adli. And it almost bore fruit straight away: Wirtz fizzed the ball into the penalty area from the left, but several of his teammates couldn't connect, before Brest's Massadio Haidara almost put the ball into his own net (68'). The Werkself now piled on the pressure and Tah tried his luck with a header shortly afterwards (69'). At the other end, Kovar parried a long-range shot from Mahdi Camara (76').
Things got a bit heated again at the start of seven minutes of stoppage time: Hofmann appealed for a penalty after he appeared to be fouled from behind in the French box, but no spot-kick was awarded even after the VAR intervened. Despite a number of attempts by Leverkusen, the game finished all-square at 1-1.
The first of three consecutive weeks with midweek games concludes with the Bundesliga clash at SV Werder Bremen. Kick-off at the Weserstadion is at 18:30 CEST on Saturday, 26 October. This will be followed by the DFB Pokal second-round tie at home to SV 07 Elversberg on Tuesday, 29 October at 18:00 CET (Get your tickets here!).
The stats:
Stade Brest: Bizot - Lala, Chardonnet, Coulibaly, Haidara - Camara (83' Doumbia), Lees-Melou, Magnetti (83' Fernandes) - Del Castillo (72' Faivre), Ajorque (72' Salah), Sima (66' Balde)
Bayer 04: Kovar - Mukiele (72' Tapsoba), Tah, Hincapie, Grimaldo - Palacios (63' Xhaka), Garcia - Tella (63' Frimpong), Hofmann, Wirtz - Schick (63' Adli, 81' Terrier)
Goals: 0-1 Wirtz (24'), 1-1 Lees-Melou (39')
Yellow cards: Salah, Lees-Melou - Frimpong, Wirtz, Tah, Alonso (head coach)
Referee: Ivan Kružliak (Slovakia)
Spectators: 15,510 at Stade du Roudourou in Guingamp
Away fans take note: Tickets for the forthcoming away game for the Werkself against FC St Pauli at the Millerntor Stadium on Sunday, 20 April (kick-off: 19:30 CEST) are exclusively available on the Bayer 04 app. The tickets are available at once and as usual under the 'Profil' tab by clicking on the 'Meine Tickets' button.
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Where were you on 14 April 2024? – That question will probably be asked a lot in Leverkusen today. And can there be anybody in this city who doesn't have an answer to hand? Hard to imagine. That Sunday exactly a year ago was too special. Too big. Too stirring. Too incredible. Everybody will have their own personal memory of that historic day. As everybody was there somehow. Even those who were unfortunately unable to get a ticket for the game of games against Werder Bremen.
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