Following last week’s 1-1 draw in Germany, it was all to play for between Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg in north London.
Most of the first half was spent in the Leverkusen half, as you would expect in an away tie against a team of the quality of Arsenal. However, despite the efforts of Mikel Arteta’s side, after a poor performance at the weekend against Bayern Munich, Leverkusen keeper Janis Blaswich made save after save to keep the game goalless, including several point-blank ones.
As the game progressed, it had the feeling of one of those nights for Arsenal, where Blaswich was just in unbeatable form and it would of taken a special strike to beat him, and that special strike came when Eberechi Eze’s outside of the box volley, flew past die Werkself keeper to make it 1-0, and 2-1 on aggregate.
In the second half, the game followed a similar trend, and it took another long-range effort to beat Blaswich when Declan Rice made it 2-0 on the night.
Overall, it was a very poor performance from Leverkusen, considering their performance last week, die Werkself were well off the pace, and at this level, that can quite easily be taken advantage of. You can also look at the smaller things, such as the penalty at the end of the first leg and whether that should have been given in the first place, but at the end of the day, Leverkusen weren’t good enough.
In terms of attack, they were very ineffective, only managing seven shots and one on target in the whole game. Christian Kofane was isolated too many times today, while it was like that in the first leg too; this time, it was far more obvious.
Luckily for Leverkusen, their season is not over yet as they are still in the hunt for a Champions League spot, and they are still in the DFB Pokal semi-finals, where Bayern Munich await.
Janis Blaswich (7), Edmond Tapsoba (5), Jarell Quansah (6), Robert Andrich (5), Ernest Poku (5), Aleix García (5), Exequiel Palacios (5), Alejandro Grimaldo (5), Martin Terrier (5), Ibrahim Maza (6), Christian Kofane (4)
Others: Tillman (5), Montrell Culbreath (6), Patrik Schick (5), Equi Fernández (-)
In a game of very few standout performances for Leverkusen, Janis Blaswich was probably the only winner. In the first half, the 34-year-old made key save after key save to keep Kasper Hjulmand’s side in the tie. In total, Blaswich made 10 saves (via FotMob), and if the other 10 players turned up for Leverkusen, then it would have been a memorable performance from the German.
