Head coach Kevin Brok made three changes to his starting XI compared to the 5-0 defeat at Benfica three weeks earlier: Instead of Naba Mensah (senior side), Nils Gernhardt (bench) and Marton Szep (ill), U17 World Cup returnees Nebe Domnic and Osman Turay as well as U17s player Elia Datené were handed starts. In addition to Mensah, Ferdinand Pohl, Ben Hawighorst, Montrell Culbreath and Jeremiah Mensah were also part of the Champions League squad for the evening's clash so were unavailable. The hosts went into the game trailing Bayer 04 by a point following wins against Napoli and Monaco and defeats against Villarreal and Dortmund.
The Blues dominated from the start and had their first chance at the Manchester City Academy Stadium after two minutes through Reigan Heskey - son of former Liverpool star Emile Heskey - but keeper and captain Jesper Schlich pulled off an excellent save. City's Mahamadou Sangare had the best chance of the opening period when he hit the crossbar on 11 minutes. At the other end, Turay had two attempts (8', 17'). As the game progressed, the Werkself gradually found their way into the game and also got forward more, mostly through counter-attacks. Jonah Berghoff had the next attempt with a header following a corner kick (18). The action then moved back into Leverkusen's half without City creating any goal threat worth mentioning. As Heskey could 'only' hit the post three minutes before the break, the teams went into the tunnel at half-time with the score at 0-0.
The second half then got off to the worst possible start for Bayer 04: Noah Probst caught City's Kian Noble in his own penalty area as he attempted to clear the ball, and Heskey easily converted the subsequent spot-kick to give the home side a 1-0 lead (49'). At that point, the Werkself once again had keeper Schlich to thank for the fact that they'd conceded just the one goal. However, the stopper was left helpless when Divine Mukasa made it 2-0 with a powerful long-range effort (57'). The game now clearly turned in City's favour, who scored three more goals within six minutes: Christian McFarlane (64'), Mukasa (67') and substitute Floyd Samba (70') made it 5-0, with Mukasa again scoring the final goal from the penalty spot (85').
"Of course, the game didn't turn out the way we wanted it to," stressed Brok afterwards. "In the first half, we also created some occasional attacking opportunities ourselves. After the break, it was annoying to concede the early goal from a penalty. After that, they played to their strengths and we were no longer able to physically stand up to them with our younger team. The result hurts today, but tomorrow we'll start recovering and preparing for the final matches in the league and the Youth League, where we want to achieve the maximum."
The Leverkusen U19s continue with the penultimate matchday of the preliminary round in the DFB Youth League. On Sunday, 30 November (kick-off: 12:00 CET), TSV Schott Mainz will be the visitors to the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. This will be followed by the final preliminary round clash at FSV Frankfurt on Saturday, 6 December, at 13:00 CET. The final match of the season will be the UEFA Youth League home game against Newcastle United. Kick-off is on Wednesday, 10 December, at 14:00 CET at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion.
Highlights:
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The stats:
Manchester City: Brits - Nfonkeu, Noble, Mfuni, McFarlane (71' Braithwaite) - Gray (77' Miles), Fapetu (57' Samba), Mukasa - McAidoo, Sangare (77' Warhurst), R. Heskey (77' Dunbar-McDonald)
Bayer 04: Schlich - Kurowski (72' Papadakis), Domnic, Probst, Kir (86' Wrobel), Turay (72' Gernhardt) - Datené, Djedovic - Massek (72' Chigozie Owen), Berghoff - Izekor (72' Ermec)
Goals: 1-0 R. Heskey (49'/pen), 2-0 Mukasa (57'), 3-0 McFarlane (64'), 4-0 Mukasa (67'), 5-0 Samba (70'), 6-0 Mukasa (85'/pen)
Yellow cards: Fapetu - Datené, Berghoff
Referee: Mathieu Vernice (Frankreich)
Spectators: 640 at Manchester City Academy Stadium
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