Leverkusen gave away two goals and two points in the 2-2 win against Gladbach

DThree days after the dramatic semifinals in the Europa League, Bayer Leverkusen received the next blow to the neck. The Werkself gambled away a comfortable half-time lead in the 2-2 (2-0) win over Rhenish rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach with coach Daniel Farke on the sidelines and have now been waiting for a win for six competitive games. Before the season finale, Leverkusen is sixth in the table and one point ahead of VfL Wolfsburg.

Amine Adli (15′) and Kerem Demirbay (20′) scored for Bayer, Jonas Hofmann (58′) brought the visitors closer, Lars Stindl (90′) equalized after a bad mistake by Nadiem Amiri. At 1: 2 Mitchell Bakker had messed up. After Wolfsburg’s defeat at Freiburg, Leverkusen passed Lower Saxony on Saturday but failed to capitalize on Borussia. Bayer defender Piero Hincapie saw the red card after a brutal foul on Julian Weigl (90+4).

The foals, who have only won once over the opponent’s place this season, turned up the heat only after the break. Before the game, the Rheinische Post had fueled the ongoing separation rumors with a report, but sporting director Roland Virkus denied it.

“We have to keep going,” said Bayer coach Xabi Alonso twice after the Europa League dream had collapsed: “Cheer up and keep going.” after a sluggish initial phase, the first compelling chances to score.

First, Hincapie leveraged the Gladbach defensive network with a flat through ball to Adli, who eluded Marvin Friedrich in a running duel and executed it from an acute angle. A little later, Demirbay headed in the six-yard box. Both times, Jan Olschowsky, who, like the previous week at BVB (2: 5), replaced the injured regular goalkeeper Jonas Omlin, made an unhappy figure.

With the onset of downpour, Borussia, who were playing with a back three and in which Farke relied on world champion Christoph Kramer and top striker Marcus Thuram, who had recovered, tried to take over more of the game. But only national player Hofmann presented Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky (39th) with serious problems. On the other side, Moussa Diaby (41st) miserably missed the preliminary decision, the Frenchman shot a rebound over the empty goal. A little later, Demirbay received his fifth yellow card.

Both teams came out of the dressing room unchanged – and initially the game remained unchanged. Leverkusen was defensively compact, Gladbach remained unimaginative.

But then Bayer made it exciting again. Mitchel Bakker put Hradecky under pressure with a back pass, Hofmann coaxed the ball from the goalkeeper and slotted it into the open goal.

Both teams were now pushing for the next goal, Hincapie (59′) and Diaby (60′) immediately missed the best chances. On the other side, Stindl had the equalizer on his feet (85′) – then he still scored after Amiri wanted to play the ball to Hradecky, but Thuram had played it in the foot in front of his own goal.