Werkself beat Eintracht 3-1 in seventh win in succession

Head coach Xabi Alonso fielded the same starting line-up against Eintracht Frankfurt as in last weekend's 3-0 away win at Schalke 04 - the first time this season the Spaniard has not made changes in two successive league matches. Ayman Azhil came into the matchday squad due to the absence of Kerem Demirbay sidelined with a knee injury. Patrik Schick, Adam Hlozek and Nadiem Amiri were also unavailable. The visitors also made no changes to their starting eleven from the 2-0 win against Union Berlin in the DFB Cup quarter-finals..

Adli scores early on - Diaby doubles lead before half-time

From the kick-off, the Frankfurt team again and again disrupted Leverkusen attempts to attack with minor fouls in midfield with no goalscoring opportunities for either side in the opening stages of the game – up to an early strike from the Werkself. On ten minutes, Florian Wirtz put his teammate Amine Adli through the middle after a one-two and the Frenchman exploited a positional error by the Eintracht defender Evan Ndicka to go through in a one-on-one with keeper Kevin Trapp before hitting the ball into the roof of the net to make it 1-0. At the other end, Lukas Hradecky showed what he could do with the former Frankfurt player saving a powerful shot from Philipp Max. Jeremie Frimpong pulled off a last-minute challenge to deny Max on 21 minutes.

The Werkself, playing from a well-organised base, missed out the chance to extend the lead on the half-hour mark with a double chance for Moussa Diaby and goalscorer Adli. However, the hosts did score the important second goal just before half-time. A perfectly timed through ball from Wirtz found Diaby and he beat the Frankfurt keeper Trapp with a right-foot shot that was slightly deflected off the Frankfurt defender Ndicka. Adli then had the chance to make it 3-0 but Trapp kept out his effort with a flying save (43'). The Werkself deservedly took a two-goal lead into the break at half-time.

eintracht score out of the blue - no more goals conceded

The first chance for the Black and Reds after the restart fell to Wirtz but Trapp was again able to make the save to deny his shot from three yards out (53’). And a shot from Diaby to the near post four minutes later was also saved by the Frankfurt keeper. While the Eintracht head coach Oliver Glasner made four changes by the hour mark, Xabi Alonso kept faith with his starting eleven. On 70 minutes, Sardar Azmoun replaced goalscorer Adli up front, Mitchel Bakker also came on in place of Frimpong.

For a long time there was no threat on the Leverkusen goal but with 75 minutes on the clock Sow converted an assist from Max with the right-foot shot to the far corner to make it 2-1. The visitors from Frankfurt sensed the chance to get a result. However, the next goal was not scored by the Eagles but instead by substitute Azmoun. A solo run by the Iranian saw him round the keeper Trapp to slot the ball into the net to make it 3-1 (90+5').

quarter-final first leg at the BayArena

The Werkself now have two double-fixture weeks after the Bundesliga home match against Eintracht. This Thursday, 13 April (kick-off: 21.00 CEST), Bayer 04 are at home to the Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals (tickets available now). That is followed three days later by a Bundesliga away game at VfL Wolfsburg (kick-off 19.30 CEST) before Bayer 04 travel to Belgium for the quarter-final second leg on 20 April. The kick off is at 21.00 CEST.

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Hradecky – Kossounou, Tah, Tapsoba - Frimpong (Bakker 70’), Palacios, Andrich, Hincapie (Fosu-Mensah 87’) - Adli (Azmoun 70’), Diaby - Wirtz (Sinkgraven 79’)

Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp – Jakic, Hasebe (Tuta 64’), Ndicka - Buta (Knauff 46’), Rode (Dina Ebimbe 64’), Sow, Max - Borré (Kamada 56’), Götze (Alario 82’) - Kolo Muani

Goals: 1-0 Adli (10’), 2-0 Diaby (35’), 2-1 Sow (75’), 3-1 Azmoun (90+5’)

Booked: Tapsoba – Götze, Borré, Knauff, Dina Ebimbe, Jakic

Referee: Robert Hartmann (Wangen)

Attendance: 30,210 (sold out) at the BayArena