Peter Bosz made two changes to the side that faced Anderlecht in the only pre-season friendly (1-1): Regular first choice keeper Lukas Hradecky, who was away on duty with Finland, returned in goal. Nicholas Lomb dropped to the bench. In attacking midfield, youngster Florian Wirtz came in for Exequiel Palacios who joined Lomb on the subs bench.
Good news for the first competitive match for the Werkself in the new season was on view in the West Stand before kick-off: For the first time since the beginning of March – even though the total was 300 under strict hygiene regulations – fans were back at the BayArena. Before kick-off, they joined sporting managing director Rudi Völler and sporting director Simon Rolfes in bidding farewell to Ramazan ‘Rambo’ Özcan. The keeper hung up his boots at the end of last season but remains at Bayer 04 as a goalkeeping coach in the youth set-up.
Shortly after that, the game got started: The Regional League side from the north of the country started with a 4-1-4-1 system against the favourites from three tiers above and they played very deep against the Werkself but the hosts took control of the game from the first minute and patiently sought a way through the packed Norderstedt defence. And that succeeded on four minutes: Lars Bender broke through into the box, rounded his opponent and slotted the ball into the bottom right corner to give the Werkself the lead. Kerem Demirbay had a shot shortly after that but failed to find the target (8').
The Black and Reds were clearly full of commitment in the first half as they demonstrated they did not want to give anything away at the BayArena. Nadiem Amiri doubled the lead on ten minutes and Lucas Alario headed in a Karim Bellarabi cross to make it 3-0 on 12 minutes. The provider then hit the bar on 17 minutes. It was striking that the Werkself refused to ease off despite having a clear lead.
Another impressive move involving Amiri and Demirbay ended with the 17-year-old Wirtz finding the back of the net from close range to increase the lead to 4-0 (21'). 'EN' keeper Lars Huxsohl showed what he could do when he pulled off a great reflex save to turn a long-range effort from Demirbay away for a corner on 27 minutes. The 24-year-old was then helpless as the Bundesliga side landed a double whammy: First, Charles Aránguiz tucked the ball away from a corner on the half-hour mark and then Amiri fired a long-range shot into the far corner to make it 6-0 (31'). The Black and Reds did ease off slightly before half-time but at no point gave away control of the game. They took a 6-0 lead into the break.
Bosz made two changes at half-time: Moussa Diaby replaced Amiri on the wing and new signing Patrik Schick (AS Roma, recently on loan at RB Leipzig) made his debut up front. The Czech Republic international came on for Alario. After the extremely entertaining first half in an action-packed clash between top-flight and fourth division teams there was almost nothing to see until the final 15 minutes of the game. Norderstedt gave less away in defence and the Werkself eased off. 'EN' keeper Huxsohl saved from Diaby (75') but two minutes later was left stranded as new signing Schick made it 7-0 from a yard out. The debut goal from the central striker was the last of the afternoon. In the end, the Werkself eased through to the next round.
The Werkself start the Bundesliga campaign in a weeks time. The Black and Reds are away to VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday, 20 September (kick-off: 18.00 CET).
Match stats:
Norderstedt: Huxsohl – Marxen (Karschau 81'), Nuxoll, Grau, Kummerfeld (Rajao da Cunha 64') – Koch – Gutmann, Nyarko (Williams 46'), von Knebel, Brown – Lüneburg (Brüning 46')
Bayer 04: Hradecky – L. Bender (Dragovic 73'), S. Bender, Tapsoba, Sinkgraven – Aránguiz (Baumgartlinger 73’), Demirbay – Bellarabi (Palacios 73’), Wirtz, Amiri (Diaby 46’) – Alario (Schick 46’)
Goals: 0-1 L. Bender (4’), 0-2 Amiri (10’), 0-3 Alario (12’), 0-4 Wirtz (21’), 0-5 Aránguiz (30’), 0-6 Amiri (31’), 0-7 Schick (77’)
Booked Brown
Referee: Sören Storks (Velen)
Attendance: 300
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