The management of the Werkself youngsters were suitably disappointed. "At the end of the day it was a deserved win for Dresden," said coach Markus von Ahlen and his colleague Iraklis Metaxas added: "The lads didn't really do enough today."
Although Atakan Akkaynak, Sam Schreck and Jakub Bednarczyk, who all completed the pre-season with the Bayer 04 first team squad, were in the starting line-up, Leverkusen never found their usual and hoped-for form. "We set out to control the game but we didn't manage it. We played too slowly and, above all, we didn't function as a team. We weren’t decisive enough up front and too susceptible at the back," criticised von Ahlen.
The latter was clearly evident at set pieces with the dangerous Dresden side scoring their first two goals in that way on 15 and 56 minutes. "We lacked organisation and resolve," declared Metaxas. Güven Yalcin equalised seven minutes before the break and substitute Ömer Tokac levelled at 2-2 five minutes to play. "In those moves we succeeded in getting behind their defence. But we didn't do that enough," said von Ahlen. A minute after the second equaliser, the Dresden fans were able to celebrate the 3-2 scoreline as the Bayer 04 defence were again not compact and lacked energy in their approach.
The championship of the West group in the U19 Bundesliga starts for the Bayer 04 U19 side on Sunday 13 August with a crunch match away to Schalke 04 (11.00 CET). "We'll need to do much better than we did at Dresden if we’re going to to get a result," said von Ahlen.
Match stats:
Dynamo Dresden: Schneider – Vetterlein, Kusej (Ziehm 90'), Huber (Hauptmann 71’), Bär, Kulke, Jacob, Shubitidze, Atilgan (Engst 82’), Käppler, Stelzer
Bayer 04: Kucz – Shala, Stappmann, Boller, Popovic (Deveci 69’) – Schneider (Tokac 55’), Arik – Schreck, Akkaynak, Bednarczyk (Bukusu 78’) – Yalcin
Goals: 1-0 (15’) Atilgan, 1-1 (38’) Yalcin, 2-1 (56’), Atilgan, 2-2 (85’) Tokac, 3-2 (86’) Shubitidze
Referee: Schipke (Landsberg-Queis)
Booked: Shala, Stappmann, Tokac
Attendance: 692
After Jens Nowotny was officially named a Bayer 04 honorary captain last weekend, the long-standing Werkself player is part of the Leverkusen delegation on the trophy tour to New York City next week from 11 to 14 September. In an interview with bayer04.de, the 50-year-old talked about his expectations ahead of the trip to the metropolis on the East Coast of the USA.
Show moreThe German Football League (DFL) has confirmed the dates and kick-off times for matchdays 6 to 12 of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. Full details of the Bayer 04 fixtures.
Show moreMarkus Rehm, a long jumper at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, won the gold medal for the fourth time in succession at the Paralympics on Wednesday.
Show moreThe fixture details for the second round of the DFB Pokal 2024/25 have been confirmed. The home tie for Bayer 04 against second division SV 07 Elversberg is on Tuesday, 29 October with the kick off at 18.00 CET (live on Sky). That was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday.
Show more