Werkself review #ASMB04: Penalty curse conquered

SUMMARY: TWICE IN THE LEAD

It was definitely a European thriller at the Stade Louis II on Thursday night: Florian Wirtz opened the scoring for Leverkusen on 13 minutes, the AS Monaco captain Wissam Ben Yedder equalised from the penalty spot shortly after that (19'). But Exequiel Palacios produced the right response just two minutes later to put the visitors back in front. After the restart, Amine Adli increased the lead to 3-1 for Bayer 04 (58'). Breel Embolo made it 3-2 with six minutes to play and thereby took the game to extra time. With no goals in the additional 30 minutes, the team under head coach Xabi Alonso sealed victory on penalties as Monaco's Eliot Matazo only hit the bar and all the Werkself players found the net from the spot. The match report

REACTION: "CONVINCED WE'D SCORE THEM ALL"

Defender Jonathan Tah was relieved and happy speaking to Werkself TV after the game: "That was extremely important for us. Wins like that always give the team a boost. The penalty shootout was obviously nerve biting for us. But I went up to every player beforehand and geed them up, I trusted them and was convinced we'd score them all in style!"

Head coach Xabi Alonso added at the post-match press conference: "It wasn't easy to come here and play a game like that today as Monaco definitely have Champions League quality. But that's exactly what we did. We can be proud of that!" Asked about the problem with penalties ahead of the game, the Spaniard said: "I already had great confidence in the lads before the penalty shootout. We practised it in training and it went very well – that's why I wasn't really nervous to be honest.“

PERSONNEL: STRONG TEAM PERFORMANCE BY THE  WERKSELF

The Werkself produced a really strong team performance from the start with plenty of pressure going forwards. At first, it was the impressive midfielders Florian Wirtz (13') and Exequiel Palacios (21') who rounded off good moves from the team. The two of them set up Amine Adli on 58 minutes: Palacios won the ball and fed it to Wirtz who turned on a sixpence and put a diagonal ball into the box where Adli ran in at the far post to head past Nübel to make it 3-1.

All five Leverkusen penalty takers held their nerve in the shootout and all converted from the spot: The first goalscorer for Bayer 04 was Sardar Azmoun who slotted the ball into the bottom right corner. That was followed by goals from Nadiem Amiri into the corner as well as Edmond Tapsoba who found the top corner with a powerful shot. The recovered Patrik Schick followed with a low shot. It was down to the last player Moussa Diaby to secure qualification for next round: The AS Monaco keeper Nübel was unable to keep out the impressive effort from the Werkself number 19.

STATS: COMMANDING FROM THE SPOT

Converting penalties has definitely not been the special discipline of the Werkself in recent weeks with six of the last seven spot kicks not finding the back of the net. But the Leverkusen players showed a completely different side in Monaco: All five penalty takers scored – in the most part – in an extremely commanding manner. The penalty dam has been broken.

And another statistic has been surpassed: After the Werkself were knocked out in all eleven of the previous ties in the knockout rounds of the European competition, when the first leg was at home, Leverkusen were finally able to come out on top and banish that statistic. With 51% possession, 61% of challenges won and 17 shots on goal – five more than Monaco – also sees the match stats come out in favour of the Black and Reds.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY: TOP MARKS FOR WIRTZ AND PALACIOS

There is unanimity and nobody was completely unstirred after the game: The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described the victory as follows: "Penalties followed by ecstasy" and added: "After the historic qualification and the banished penalty curse, Bayer Leverkusen were full of pure joy. After probably the most emotional game of his still young career as a coach, Xabi Alonso embraced everybody he got hold of and blew kisses in the direction of the stands." The Kölnische Rundschau called the win an "historic victory" and the Bild Zeitung headline read "Leverkusen beat the penalty curse" and they gave top marks to the two goalscorers Florian Wirtz and Exequiel Palacios.

OUTLOOK: ONWARD JOURNEY TO THE BREISGAU

The Werkself return to league action on Sunday 26 February: After Lukas Hradecky and Co. complete a training session in Monaco on Friday, the Bayer 04 group will then leave the Côte d'Azur on Saturday to make their way directly to Freiburg. There will be another training session after arriving in the Breisgau. Leverkusen are away to SC Freiburg at the Europa Park Stadium on Bundesliga matchday 22 on Sunday. The kick-off is at 15.30 CET.