Werkself lose 3-2 at Elversberg despite late comeback in Bundesliga opener

For his Bundesliga debut, head coach Carles Martínez made just one change to the starting line-up compared with the 4-0 win in the DFB Pokal tie against SV Wehen Wiesbaden: Mark Flekken took Janis Blaswich’s place in goal. And after just four minutes, he made a superb save to deny the home side’s first shot on goal from by Cole Campbell.

early double whammy

Shortly after that, however, the Dutchman was beaten twice: First, Lukas Petkov scored from the edge of the penalty area to make it 1–0 (8') for the newly promoted side; two minutes later, Cole Campbell added a second with a shot from the left-hand side into the far corner (10'). The spirited home side almost made it 3–0, but Flekken, Loïc Badé and Malik Tillman threw themselves in the way of the shots (15’).

After 20 minutes, the Werkself also found their way into the game – Badé missed the target by a matter of inches with a header following a cross from Bundesliga debutant Miguel Gutíerrez (21'). There was an even closer call shortly before half-time when an Aleix Garcia’s free-kick was deflected onto the crossbar. Afonso Moreira headed the rebound wide (38'). So, despite a period of pressure from the Black and Reds, they remained two goals down at half-time.

two goals not enough

Immediately after the restart, Bayer 04 suffered another blow when David Mokwa converted a cross from the right to make it 3–0 to SVE (46'). The Werkself subsequently regained control of the game, but rarely created clear-cut chances against the compact defence of the Saarland side. A curling effort from Moreira (65’) narrowly missed the opposition goal, as did a header from Patrik Schick (68').

The Czech player showed greater precision on 77 minutes when he skilfully converted a shot from Ibrahim Maza to pull a goal back for Leverkusen. That sparked a late Leverkusen comeback: with overwhelming dominance, the Werkself created chance after chance and, through substitute Christian Kofane, made it 3-2 in stoppage time (90+1’). Substitute number two, Jonas Hofmann, almost equalised, but his shot was parried by SVE goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof (90+2’). As a result, the Black and Reds failed to pick up any points in their Bundesliga opener.

next up: Home opener against Union Berlin

The action continues on matchday 2 on Saturday, 5 September (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). Union Berlin are the opponents for the first home match of the new Bundesliga season. That is followed a week later, on Saturday 12 September (kick-off: 15:30 CEST) by an away fixture against FC Augsburg. Tickets for both matches are available HERE.

Match stats:

SV Elversberg: Kristof – Gyamerah (Sirch 75’), Pinckert, Rohr (Le Joncour 82’), Günther – Keidel, Poreba – Petkov, Onyeka (Darvich 65'), Campbell (Krattenmacher 65') – Mokwa (Schnellbacher 75’)

Bayer 04: Flekken– Vázquez (Kofane 55’), Badé (Quansah 55’), Tapsoba, Gutiérrez – Fernández (Medina 55’), Garcia – Maza, Tillman (Hofmann 65’), Moreira (Boniface 86') – Schick

Goals: 1–0 Petov (8'), 2–0 Campbell (10'), 3–0 Mokwa (46'), 3–1 Schick (77'), 3–2 Kofane (90+1’)

Yellow cards: Rohr, Campbell – Maza, Medina

Referee: Robert Hartmann (Wangen im Allgäu)

Attendance: 9,307 at the URSAPHARM Arena