Werkself review #KOEB04: A battling derby victory

Summary: Controlled and serious

Leverkusen were the dominant side from the start and fired off the first warning shot inside four minutes when Patrik Schick laid off to Jonas Hofmann, who flashed a shot just wide. The hosts were then reduced to 10 men after only 13 minutes when Jan Thielmann caught Granit Xhaka on his Achilles, being shown a red card on review by referee Tobias Stieler. Köln then sat back and were finally breached after 38 minutes when Alejandro Grimaldo crossed from the left to Schick, who flicked it on for Jeremie Frimpong to tap in the opener. The Cologne side had an immediate chance to level after the restart, but Sargis Adamyan struck the post with his volley. At the other end, Alonso’s men struggled to break down the compact Köln defence. They finally added a second with around a quarter of an hour to go when substitute Amine Adli found Grimaldo with a cutback, and the Spaniard fired beyond Marvin Schwäbe. Read more about the game in our report here.

Reaction: “The atmosphere was amazing”

Alonso said after the game: “I’m happy with the result. It’s not easy to win here. The atmosphere was amazing. It wasn’t easy for us to find space. It was then a different game after the red card. The goal was very important.” The coach continued: “We wanted to play with less emotion and more control in the second half. We were more patient finding our moments, and that’s how we scored the second goal. The game wasn’t spectacular, but we did our job.”

Xhaka was also pleased after the final whistle: “A derby is always special, obviously also for us. But being cool comes through our experience. We have young players who’ve done great things and players with lots of experience. The mix is very good.” Jonathan Tah added: “We wanted to remain focused after half-time and not get nervous. We wanted to make the opponent tired, make them run. We did that.”

Media review: “Without shine in Cologne”

The headline in the Rheinische Post was “Leverkusen win without shine in Cologne”. The Süddeutsche Zeitung summarised: “Even though Köln were a man down for a long time, league leaders Leverkusen didn’t have it easy”. The Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung had a similar perspective: “No walk in the park for the Werkself”. kicker highlighted Xhaka as man of the match: “A total of 120 touches and a pass completion of 94 percent – Granit Xhaka was the focal point for the entire game as the commanding leader and genius for Leverkusen.”

Personnel: 50th Bundesliga game for Alonso

It was Alonso’s 50th Bundesliga game in charge of Bayer 04. His record so far is 33 wins, 10 draws and seven defeats. The Spaniard has therefore picked up 109 points – only Hansi Flick (125) and Pep Guardiola (132) have ever earned more from their first 50 matches in the league. Exequiel Palacios also made his comeback in the 83rd minute. Goalscorer Frimpong picked up his fifth yellow card and will be suspended for next weekend’s game against Wolfsburg.

Stats: Working hard in attack, solid in defence

The Werkself have scored in each of their last 17 competitive away games, which equals the club record at professional level from 2016. Leverkusen had 17 attempts on goal to Köln’s six and have now scored in 23 of their 24 league fixtures in 2023/24 – the most of any Bundesliga team.

In addition, Bayer 04 had 73 percent possession and a pass completion of 92 percent (Köln 74 percent). The hosts came out narrowly ahead for challenges won with 53 percent. Nevertheless, the Werkself kept their 12th clean sheet in 24 league matches – the most of any team.

Up next: Off to Baku then Wolfsburg at home

The Werkself return to training on Tuesday as they prepare for the journey to Azerbaijan for Thursday’s UEFA Europa League round of 16 first leg against Qarabag (18:45 CET). The team then return home for Sunday’s Bundesliga encounter at the BayArena against Wolfsburg (19:30).