Talented Montrell Culbreath (18) earned a starting berth in Bayer Leverkusen’s 1-0 win over Hamburg on Wednesday night, earning praise from head coach Kasper Hjulmand and teammate Robert Andrich.
“Montrell has trained very well,” said Hjulmand. “We need this mentality. He has a great character and is desperate to play. I’m very pleased with him.”
Starting at right-back with injuries to Lucas Vazquez and Arthur, Culbreath completed 80 minutes, and almost scored in the seventh minute.
“He played a really good game,” said Andrich. “You could see what the lad is capable of.”
Finding out that he would be starting, the 18-year-old German youth international said: “It was a surprise at first, and I was a little nervous. I was able to enjoy it during the day and I slept very well the night before the game.”
After making his Bundesliga debut against RB Leipzig, scoring as a substitute, the youngster was named on the bench for games against VfB Stuttgart, Eintracht Frankfurt and Mainz but with Leverkusen’s growing injury list, the Landstuhl-native was awarded his first start on Wednesday.
