The match got off to an eventful start: Amine Adli kicked out at the Bochum defender Dominique Heintz and referee Tobias Welz showed him the red card after the intervention of VAR (8'). With a man down, the Werkself continued to press forwards to find a way through the Bochum defence. However, no goals were scored. At the other end, Bochum's Philipp Förster gave VfL the lead (19'). Takuma Asano doubled the lead from a corner on 34 minutes and the half-time score was 2-0. Despite great efforts to score after the restart the ball did not end up in the back of the hosts net. Instead, Kevin Stöger made it 3-0 to VfL four minutes from full-time to seal their top-flight status. Bayer 04 ended – with the help of Hertha Berlin – the 2022/23 season in sixth place and thereby secured participation in European competition next season. HERE is the match report.
Lukas Hradecky said after the game: "We didn't play well. We were in sixth place at the end of the first half of the season. We did better in the first few weeks of the Rückrunde but we did not have a good May." The captain did however find words for the once again impressive support from the 3,000 travelling Bayer 04 fans: "The fans are the heart and soul of this great club, they deserve more!"
Xabi Alonso summed up in the post-match press conference: "The red card was fair. Bochum had an extra player for 85 minutes but we created a number of chances despite being a man down. The game didn't have to end with a 3-0 scoreline." The Spaniard finished by looking forwards: "Of course, I'm rather annoyed today and there are still the repercussions of the game against Mönchengladbach. But we will get over that soon. We can't change things and we have to do better in the future. When I came, the situation was very bad. Now we have qualified for Europe again. It's very important in future that we don’t repeat the mistakes we made this season and continue to develop."
Adli, sent off on eight minutes, apologised to the team in the dressing room and posted a message on Instagram: "I'd like to apologise to my teammates, the club and, of course, the fans who support us at every game. Anyone who knows me knows that I always play with very high intensity. And this afternoon I was involved in an action that shouldn’t be part of the game. I'm the first person to allocate blame and I will do everything to ensure it doesn't happen again."
There was good news in the late introduction of Noah Mbamba (90+2’) in place of Moussa Diaby: The 18-year-old Belgium youth international, signed from Club Brugge in the winter, made his debut for the Werkself.
The Werkself had eleven shots on the VfL goal, Bochum had one more. In terms of possession, the hosts had the narrow advantage with 51%. The home side also came out on top in duels won with 58%. Pass completion for Bochum was 74%, for the Black and Reds it was 65%.
The headline in the Express: "Open goal for VfL after Adli's red card." The Rheinische Post wrote: "While Bochum witnessed a crowd invasion after staying up, Leverkusen were able to celebrate finishing sixth despite the clear defeat on the final matchday." The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger chose the headline, "Through to Europe with help of Berliners" and drew the following conclusion: "Crazy end to a crazy season that ended well for Bayer 04 Leverkusen to the complete surprise of everybody. Sixth place appeared unbelievable at the turn of the year after the poorest start in the history of the club and dropping down to seventeenth in the table.
The squad returned to Leverkusen together on Saturday night for a final team meeting. The Werkself players now start their summer break. The club will soon announce the agenda for the summer.
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