Peter Bosz is now allowed to leave his hotel, the team hotel, which is only 100 meters away from his apartment in Düsseldorf. In Corona times, everyone has to stay in the hotel, those are the rules, you should neither go to buy toothpaste quickly nor jump over to your own apartment. The Dutch coach from Bayer Leverkusen was able to console himself for these restrictions until Monday evening with the fact that his team had a chance to win the Europa League finals in North Rhine-Westphalia due to the corona. For that, one likes to be barracked. But the Leverkusen-based company gambled away this title chance in the quarter-finals. They have to get out of the hotel again, Bosz is allowed to go home to the nearby apartment – and is probably not at all happy about it.
On Monday evening in Düsseldorf, Leverkusen lost the singular quarter-final match against Italian second-placed Inter Milan with 1: 2 (1: 2). You have faced one of the toughest chunks in the field of the remaining eight teams. Now their season is finally over, and the Europa League comes to an end without German participants. Next Monday, Inter will meet Schachtar Donezk or FC Basel in the semi-finals in Düsseldorf, who will play against each other this Tuesday in Gelsenkirchen. The final is on August 21 in Cologne.
Leverkusen comes back unexpectedly
It was a wild quarter-finals. Especially at the beginning. When 23 minutes were played, Leverkusen could have been disaffected. Nicolo Barella (15th) and Romelu Lukaku (21st) gave Inter a 2-0 lead, and if the two had used their second big chance (Barella 20th, Lukaku 23rd), it would have been at that point can already stand 4-0 for Milan.
But then Leverkusen unexpectedly came back into the game just four minutes after the 2-0 draw. First, Kai Havertz cheated the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Samir Handanovic with the first Bayer shot on goal in the 24th minute to make it 1: 2, and then the Spanish referee Carlos de Cerro Grande saved the Rhinelander at the last second by studying video a Milan penalty. Leverkusen’s Daley Sinkgraven had got the ball to his shoulder, the referee had whistled, Lukaku stood ready to shoot for two minutes, but then the penalty was withdrawn in the 28th minute.
The Bayer storm series does not make half as much fuss as Inter
Leverkusen were back in the game, but Leverkusen kept their playing problems: problems with the build-up game, problems with Milan pressing, problems with the fast Inter strikers Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. These problems were not by chance. Defensive midfield organizer Charles Aránguiz was absent from a yellow card and center-back Sven Bender was injured while warming up. Jonathan Tah replaced Bender and Julian Baumgartlinger took over the Aránguiz position, these forced changes were not ideal.
The Bayer storm row, with Havertz, Kevin Volland, Moussa Diaby and from the 59th minute also Leon Bailey, was not badly cast either, but did not cause half as much fuss as the self-confident, loud and very physically acting Inter attackers. The Leverkusen team looked pretty intimidated for almost an hour, which you shouldn’t be in a knockout game at an advanced stage of the tournament against extremely aggressive Italians.
It was thanks to their goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, who was able to save a few balls, that they were still in the game fifteen minutes before the end. So the game remained open, Leverkusen only needed a single goal for extra time, but they simply didn’t create enough chances to score. This is how the game ended, and with it Leverkusen’s hope for the first title since the 1993 DFB Cup.
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