Head coach Xabi Alonso made nine changes from the team that started the weekend’s 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart, with only defenders Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba retaining their places. Niklas Lomb was in goal for his first competitive appearance for the Werkself since the Europa League encounter with Young Boys on 25 February 2021.
The Werkself dominated from the off at the BayArena and needed only six minutes to open the scoring. Robert Andrich won the ball inside the opposition half and set Schick away. The Czech striker first looked to find a teammate but then decided to go it alone and finished from 20 yards out. Compatriot Hlozek then tried to repeat the feat a few minutes later but fired over from a central position. Bayer 04 didn’t let up and doubled their advantage with 22 minutes gone as Jonas Hofmann crossed following a short corner, with Tapsoba flicking it on with his head for 2-0.
The host were again on the front foot straight after and got a third when Nathan Tella crossed low from the right and Ellingsen turned into his own net from inside the six-yard box. It could’ve been 4-0 before the break when the lively Tella cut inside but saw his shot cleared off the line. The ball came back to Schick, who struck the post. Hlozek then put that rebound over the bar.
Again, it was Alonso’s men in control after the restart. One flowing move on the hour mark brought the next goal. Starting inside their own half and going through a number of players, substitute Noah Mbamba then sent Hlozek away, being forced wide by a backtracking defender, but the Czech forward shrugged off the challenge as he ran at pace and fired the ball under the Molde crossbar for the fourth of the evening. It was the 21-year-old’s first Europa League goal of the season, and a second soon followed. Following a corner, he picked up the ball a good 25 yards out and let fly. It took a slight deflection off Mbamba but whizzed into the net to make it 5-0 with 70 minutes gone.
The visitors then got one back out of nowhere five minutes later when Ellingsen’s long ball found Eric Kitolano to bring things back to 5-1. There were no more goals that would’ve brought a record European win for Bayer 04, but history was made late in the game when Ken Izekor came on to become the youngest Werkself player ever at 16 years, nine months and three days. The forward did try to mark the occasion with a goal but failed to hit the target with his effort. It didn’t matter as Alonso’s men extended their unbeaten start to 2023/24 to 23 matches and became only the 12th team to complete a perfect Europa League group stage.
The Werkself finish out this year with two home games in the Bundesliga. Eintracht Frankfurt are the visitors this Sunday (17:30 CET), before Bochum come to the BayArena to bring down the curtain on 2023 on Wednesday (20:30).
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Lomb – Stanisic, Tah (Grimaldo 58'), Tapsoba (Izekor 77'), Hincapie – Hofmann (Adli 58'), Puerta, Andrich, Tella – Schick (Mbamba 58'), Hlozek
Molde: Petersen – Hagelskjaer, Ellingsen, Haugan – Lovik, Grodem (Ödegard 71'), Kaasa (Björnbak 46'), Eriksen, Haugen – Gulbrandsen (Nyheim 71'), Kitolano (Juberg-Hovland 85')
Goals: 1-0 Schick (6'), 2-0 Tapsoba (22'), 3-0 Ellingsen (og, 24'), 4-0 Hlozek (60'), 5-0 Hlozek (70'), 5-1 Kitolano (75')
Yellow cards: Tah, Grimaldo
Referee: Robert Jones (England)
Attendance: 28,504 (home section sold out) at the BayArena
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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