Werkself make winning start to Florida Cup

What an atmosphere at the former baseball stadium in St Petersburg/Tampa. Spectators streamed to the home ground of the Tampa Bay Rowdies – above all, to support their superstar Chicharito. The Mexican played in the first half with Schmidt changing the whole team at the break with the exception of goalkeeper Ramazan Özcan. Karim Bellarabi, who has completed all the training sessions to date at the training camp in Orlando, was not in the squad.

Behind at the break

The steel of the South Americans was evident from the start. "We've seen that in the past two years: They quickly change to competitive mode in friendlies like this," said Schmidt. After intensive sessions over the past five days, his team initially found it difficult to play their normal game. Estudiantes took the lead on 30 minutes through Elias Umeres. "The opposition sat back very deep after that," said Schmidt.

Bayer 04 had a chance to level before the break. The referee awarded a penalty for a handball in the box and the fans cried out for Chicharito to take it. He confidently stepped up but his shot was saved by the Argentinian keeper. Juan Sebastián Verón (41) spent the 90 minutes on the bench for Estudiantes who were reduced to ten men just before half-time when Rodrigo Brana was dismissed for a serious foul in midfield

Schreck nets first goal

The Werkself started the second half with ten fresh players and the extra man. That included U19 players Sam Schreck and Atakan Akkaynak who both livened up Leverkusen's game with Schreck scoring the first goal of 2017. The youngster coolly converted an excellent cross from Charles Aránguiz to level the scores at 1-1 on 71 minutes. Bayer 04 pressed for the winner but without reward. The match ended all square on 90 minutes with the game to be decided on penalties in accordance with the rules of the competition.

Stefan Kießling, Aránguiz and Julian Brandt all scored and, because Rambo made two saves, it fell to Aleksandar Dragovic to take the last shot of the match. "I chose the one corner and then placed my shot," he said. The ball was in the back of the net to secure an additional point for the Werkself in the Florida Cup.

The second game for Bayer 04 is in the night of Wednesday to Thursday (01.00 CET) against Atlético Mineiro.

Match stats:

Bayer 04 (First half): Özcan – Boeder, Jedvaj, Toprak, Wendell – Kampl, Yurchenko – Havertz, Calhanoglu – Chicharito, Pohjanpalo.

Bayer 04 (Second half): Özcan – da Costa, Dragovic, Tah, Henrichs – Aránguiz, Akkaynak – Schreck, Brandt – Mehmedi, Kießling.

Goals: 1-0 Umeres (33’), 1-1 Schreck (71’)