Defeat against Eupen despite 3-0 lead

With the target of giving all his players time on the pitch in the consecutive matches against Sittard and the team that finished twelfth in the Belgian Jupiler League last season, Peter Bosz split the Werkself squad into two teams, making up the numbers with U19 players. After Kai Havertz, Kerem Demirbay and Moussa Diaby played in the 1-0 defeat against Sittard, the Werkself head coach included the two Benders and Kevin Volland in Team 2 for the second match.

Paulinho shines

In the second match of the day, the Black and Reds pressed from the start and had a chance to take an early lead on four minutes. Kevin Volland was brought down in the box and he picked himself up to take the penalty – the Eupen keeper Hendrik van Crombrugge went the right way and was also able to save the rebound. Shortly after that, the ultra committed Paulinho was able to turn a pass from Joel Pohjanpalo into the back of the Belgian net to make the score 1-0 on seven minutes. The Bayer 04 fans soon had another reason to celebrate: A pass from Paulinho was hammered towards the opposition goal by Lars Bender and the failed intervention by Eupen's Megane Laurant gifted the Werkself the second goal on 11 minutes. On 33 minutes, youth player Ayman Azhil ended a solo run with a low shot into the far corner of the net. Anybody who thought the game was over was sadly mistaken: Shortly after the 3-0, the ineffective visitors up to that point reduced the deficit to one goal with a double whammy out of the blue from Flavio Chiampichetti make it 3-2 at half-time.

Late own goal

The Werkself continued to press after the restart but were unable to convert their superiority into goals. Instead it was the visitors who struck next with Laurent levelling at 3-3 with a low shot. After Peter Bosz – as he did in the game against Sittard – opted to rely on the U19 players in the closing stages, the visitors took the lead on 85 minutes thanks an unfortunate headed own goal by Seymour Fünger and the game ended in a 4-3 loss. "It's important to move in the right direction in the pre-season. And it's important that nobody gets injured," said Peter Bosz before adding: "It's normal that the players are tired in the second week of the pre-season. At the same time, they have to learn what they have to do when they are tired. Then it's important to just play football. That didn't work out in either of the games today. I'm not happy with our performance against Sittard and we can do better. I was very happy with the first 30 minutes in the game against Eupen but then we too often gave the ball cheaply."

Lars Bender received a blow to the eye in a challenge in the first half. Accordingly, the Werkself number eight did not reappear after the first 45 minutes. Bosz sounded the all clear for his captain: "Lars Bender has a swollen eye but it's not that bad. Otherwise everybody else came through it okay."

Bayer 04: Hradecky – Weiser (Gaedicke 76’), Jedvaj (Fünger 76’), S. Bender (Rüth 76’), Sinkgraven (Kemper 76’) – L. Bender (Türkmen 46’, Wolf 76’), Onur (Anapak 60’) – Azhil (Sarpei 75’), Paulinho (Schlößer 60’), Pohjanpalo (Türkmen 76’) – Volland (Fesenmeyer 76’)