Werkself beat Genk 4-0 in front of home crowd

Head coach Carles Martínez made five changes to the team that started in Saturday’s 3-1 friendly win against Kickers Offenbach, with Edmond Tapsoba, Jeanuel Belocian, Ezequiel Fernández, Jonas Hofmann and Afonso Moreira replacing Lucas Vázquez, Abdoulaye Faye, Robert Andrich, Jeremiah Mensah and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht. Like in the previous games, the Spanish coach swapped virtually the whole team after around an hour – among others, Patrik Schick made his first Werkself appearance of the new season. However, it was Christian Kofane who started up front – and had the first opening of the game after just one minute. Genk goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans parried his effort, though.

Belocian opens scoring, Tella doubles

As was the case with that chance, the Werkself broke away time and time again down the left side in the early stages through the lively Afonso Moreira. So too in the ninth minute, when Tapsoba teed up Belocian to net the opening goal into the near corner. The Black-and-Reds continued to dominate the ball and their opponents after taking the lead and were celebrating again in the 16th minute – but only briefly as Loïc Badé was offside when he headed in. In temperatures of almost 35 degrees, both teams struggled to create chances after that, but the Werkself once again showed coolness in the heat shortly before the half-time whistle: Nathan Tella making it 2-0 from Hofmann’s pass.

Moreira and Kofane increase lead – Schick returns to action

Bayer 04 got back into their flow at the start of the second half and netted a third goal when Moreira muscled his way through from Aleix Garcia's long ball and found the net (51'). The Portuguese then turned provider for Kofane, whose header made it 4-0 (53').

Seven minutes later, the aforementioned Schick then got his first runout of pre-season and also registered his first attempt on goal in the 80th minute. The final action of the game saw the visitors create their first real chance, but Aaron Bibout hit the bar and that was that.

coming up: training camp after Essen test

Bayer 04 will be back at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Saturday 1 August for their third friendly in eight days, when third-division outfit Rot-Weiss Essen visit Leverkusen (kick-off 11:00 CEST). After that, the Werkself head to their six-day training camp in Blankenhain in the Weimarer Land district.

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Blaswich – Tape (Arthur 60'), Badé (Oermann 60'), Tapsoba (Faye 60'), Belocian (Hawighorst 60') – Garcia (Andrich 60'), Fernández (Berghoff 60') – Tella (Vázquez 60'), Hofmann (Boniface 60'), Moreira (Poku 60') – Kofane (Schick 60')

KRC Genk: Brughmans – Sarfo (Akpan 46'), Sattlberger (Manguelle 60'), Kongolo (Kapers 60'), Medina (Adedeji-Sternberg 60') – Heynen (Heymans 60'), Bangoura (Haroun 60') – Ito (Mirisola 60'), Erenbjerg (Sor 60'), Yokoyama (Kayambe 46') – Durosinmi (Bibout 60')

Goals: 1-0 Belocian (9'), 2-0 Tella (42'), 3-0 Moreira (51'), 4-0 Kofane (53')

Referee: Sascha Stegemann (Niederkassel)