The Iranian was in a jovial mood after his first Bundesliga goal and assist. “I’m over the moon for my goal and above all that we won. We worked hard and focussed all week. Now it’s about full concentration for the next game against Frankfurt,” Azmoun said. Captain Lukas Hradecky added: “Conceding early was a shock, but luckily Patrik equalised quickly. This was an important step towards our goals.”
Bayer 04 were without seven players for their visit to the Sportpark Ronhof. Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Karim Bellarabi were all injured, while Piero Hincapie and Robert Andrich had to serve suspensions. It meant three changes by Gerardo Seoane from the last game against RB Leipzig, with Hincapie, Andrich and Palacios making way for Kerem Demirbay, Paulinho and Azmoun – the latter making his first start for the club.
Seoane had called for more consistency, courage and resoluteness ahead of the game against the Bundesliga’s bottom side. The Werkself wanted to be forceful and attack but suffered an early setback. Fürth came down the right into the box. Hradecky denied Jessic Ngankam but couldn’t clear the danger and Willems was able to finish from close range. Leverkusen struck back immediately. Demirbay’s corner bounced off Greuther captain Branimir Hrgota and fell for Schick, whose offside position was irrelevant after the ricochet, to flick past Andreas Linde from close range for his 21st goal of the campaign.
The visitors kept up the pressure after the equaliser and again benefited from help from the hosts. This time it was Linde dallying on the ball with Azmoun lurking, and he just had to tap home into an empty net for his first Bayer 04 goal. Paulinho and Moussa Diaby both had efforts blocked as the Werkself controlled the play.
The goalscorers combined well shortly before the break as Schick had a crack from the left, but Linde made the save at his near post to keep it at 2-1 going into half-time.
The Werkself thought they had a third shortly after the restart when Paulinho turned home Diaby’s square ball, but the Frenchman was flagged offside. However, the Brazilian had his goal on 58 minutes. Although he failed to make contact originally with Azmoun’s no-look flick over the defence, he sorted his feet quickly enough to finish from inside the box. Diaby later raced past two Greuther defenders to tee up Schick, but he fired wide.
Seoane made his first substitution by sending on Daley Sinkgraven for Azmoun. The Dutchman went to the right wing, with Diaby now closer to Schick. Palacios followed shortly after for Demirbay. Julian Baumgartlinger and Lucas Alario were the next reinforcements on 82 minutes for Diaby and Schick, before the Werkself wrapped things up as the defence stood off Palacios and he finished into the bottom corner from 20 yards. The result confirmed Fürth’s relegation, while Leverkusen benefitted from defeat for RB Leipzig against Union Berlin to reclaim third place.
Next up for the Werkself is a home game against Eintracht Frankfurt on Monday, 2 May at 20:30 CEST.
Match stats:
Greuther Fürth: Linde – Griesbeck, Viergever, Itter – Asta, Tillman (Dudziak 82'), Raschl, Green, Willems (Jung 70') – Ngankam (Abiama 82'), Hrgota
Bayer 04: Hradecky – Kossounou, Tah, Tapsoba, Bakker – Aranguiz, Demirbay (Palacios 77') – Diaby (Baumgartlinger 82'), Azmoun (Sinkgraven 72'), Paulinho – Schick (Alario 82')
Goals: 1-0 Willems (5'), 1-1 Schick (9'), 1-2 Azmoun (18'), 1-3 Paulinho (58'), 1-4 Palacios (84')
Referee: Tobias Reichel (Stuttgart)
Attendance: 12.000
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