Werkself review #B04MOL: Individual class with top team spirit

Summary: Goals and dominance

Patrik Schick made his first start in over 400 days and needed only six minutes to get on the scoresheet when he opened proceedings with a long-range effort. It was his second goal of this European campaign. The Werkself’s next came after 22 minutes when Jonas Hofmann crossed following a short corner for Edmond Tapsoba to head home. It was 3-0 seconds later when Nathan Tella’s cross was turned into his own net by Martin Ellingsen. Things continued in a similar vein in the second half, with Adam Hlozek quickly adding a fourth as he finished a blistering counter-attack. Leverkusen’s other Czech striker then emulated his compatriot with a shot from even further out, this one finding the back of the net via the help of a deflection. His brace saw Hlozek named Man of the Match by Bayer 04 fans. His seven shots were also the joint-most by a Leverkusen player in a Europa League game this season. Molde then got one back with their first real chance through Eric Kitolano on 75 minutes to round off the 5-1 result. You can read our extended match report here.

Reaction: “Great team spirit and commitment”

Head coach Xabi Alonso summarised: “At the moment we’ve got great team spirit and commitment from the players. It’s about playing a good game and also being competitive. And we achieved that here. But we still shouldn’t take it as a given and should continue to work for each game. It’s a real joy for me to work with all the players because you can really sense their hunger. And it’s a great feeling for me as coach to sense that.”

Niklas Lomb, who was making his first start since February 2021’s Europa League encounter with Young Boys, was also happy in front of the Werkself-TV microphone: “It was real fun today at home in front of the fans. I’m grateful for the recognition. I know my role but will always give my all, in training, on the pitch and in every discussion. We’re just playing amazing football. We showed from the start today who was going to win this. We’re working hard for a lot of things. It’s not all coming by chance.” Tella also praised the team spirit after his own excellent display: “The team was really good today. We prepared as we always do, even though we were already qualified. We’re having a good season. Everybody wants to take their chance when they play, just like I wanted to take mine today.”

What the papers say: “Perfect group stage”

The Rheinische Post called it a “flawless group stage”, which was similar to the Express: “Leverkusen completed the first perfect group stage by any team in the Europa League for three years with a goal festival from its B team.” The headline from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger was: “B team also scoring for fun”, also handing Robert Andrich the best rating of any player: “A really good display from the newly capped Germany international, organising things with his words and feet. Played a number of great passes after winning possession.” Express also spoke of Schick’s “blistering comeback”, while Bild called it a “Schick fairy tale”.

Personnel: Izekor makes history

Ken Izekor’s substitution 77 minutes into the game made him the youngest German player ever to feature in the Europa League/UEFA Cup, aged 16 years and 204 days. He surpasses Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko, who was 17 years and 89 days when he first appeared.

And it was notable even after Lomb had celebrated with the team in front of the crowd after the game and did a lap of the ground, the fans were still cheering loudly for him, so the goalkeeper came back once more and started a Mexican wave with them.

Stats: Top scorers

The Werkself dominated proceedings with 67 percent possession and a passing rate of 92.6 percent. The Norwegians edged it on challenges with 59.5 percent won. Leverkusen also had 21 attempts on goal compared to Molde’s eight. Bayer 04 scored in all six games of the group stage, netting a competition-leading 19 goals.

Outlook: Two home games before Christmas

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).