Matchwinner Mergim Berisha quickly slipped into a thick winter jacket after the final whistle and then danced arm in arm with his Augsburg colleagues in a large circle. Xabi Alonso and his Leverkusen team had long since left the pitch after the next setback. After the 2-0 defeat against Borussia Dortmund, the Rhinelanders suffered another setback in their race to catch up in the Bundesliga under coach Alonso.
“Augsburg was a bit quicker and more aggressive than us in the second half. It was definitely a step backwards,” Leverkusen’s Robert Andrich complained to DAZN. Berisha coldly used the surprising amount of space that the Leverkusen defenders gave him after a corner kick and headed in for the fifth time in a home game this season to make it 1-0 (55th minute). “The fact that he’s so free to head the ball is very annoying and pisses me off,” added Andrich.
After the liberating goal for Augsburg in front of 27,318 spectators, the U-21 European champions cheered more cautiously than after his goal in the 3-1 draw in Freiburg, when he had drawn the ire of the Freiburg fans. For coach Enrico Maassen’s team, trying to make their own stadium “a fortress” again was the second win in their second home game this year. “I’m very proud of the team. We have made a very good development. We’re very compact,” said Berisha and was surprised himself when he scored the winning goal: “I didn’t even have an opponent. You set me free.”
Hradecky max
Leverkusen, on the other hand, suffered their second defeat in a row after five wins in a row. “After five wins it can also be dangerous. You always have to be down-to-earth,” warned goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. Now Bayer has to look down again. Finally, FCA reduced the gap to Leverkusen to three points.
There were many duels in an intense game, but chances to score were a rarity. Moussa Diaby had the best chance in the first 45 minutes, hitting the post (29′). But the lightning-fast winger is not a goalscorer like Patrik Schick, who is sorely missed by the Rhinelanders. The second-best Bundesliga goalscorer of the previous season (24 goals) has been missing since the beginning of November due to groin problems and this time the Czech didn’t make it into the squad either.
Augsburg controls the game
The fact that Bayer struggled in the creative field was also due to the fact that Alonso gave the long-injured young national player Florian Wirtz a short creative break and initially left him on the bench. “He needs time to get his best level back. We have to help him,” said Alonso about the 19-year-old, who recently made his comeback from the start in the 2-0 win against Bochum after a cruciate ligament tear and a 318-day break. In the 62nd minute, however, he came into the game.
The Augsburgers were defensively compact and controlled the game over long stretches. But not much went forward either, especially since the most accurate FCA goalscorer to date, Ermedin Demirovic, was missing due to a yellow card suspension. A shot by the Croatian Dion Drena Beljo was not a real test for Lukas Hradecky (31st). In addition to Beljo, another winter newcomer, Arne Engels, was able to start right from the start.
Augsburg were the more active team in the second half as well. Hradecky was able to parry a long-range shot from Beljo, but it happened in the following corner. Engels, who is also responsible for standards at FCA, finds Berisha, who nods to the lead. However, the striker was left completely alone by the Leverkusen defense team, which Alonso should not have liked. In a much more entertaining second half, Leverkusen risked more at the end, but without success.
