The Europa League match between Bayer Leverkusen vs Qarabag ended with a score of 3-2 for the home side. This victory was achieved by the club nicknamed The Werkself that’s dramatically.
Bayer Leverkusen host Qarabag in the second leg of the 2023/24 Europa League round of 16, Friday (15/3/2024) early morning WIB. The two teams competed at BayArena Stadium, Germany, the home of Die Werkself.
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In this match, Leverkusen is required to win at least 1-0 to qualify for the last 8 of the Europa League. The reason is, in the first leg which took place at the Qarabag headquarters, Azerbaijan, the two teams drew 2-2.
Qarabag itself is not just any team. In the first leg match, they were able to make things difficult for Leverkusen by taking a 2-0 lead before finally being equalized by Xabi Alonso’s men to make it 2-2.
The course of the Leverkusen vs Qarabag match
Statistically, Leverkusen was in control of the game with ball possession reaching 65%. Meanwhile, Qarabag, which relied on a counter-attack scheme, only held possession of the ball at 35%.
Even so, Qarabag managed to gain the lead first through a goal scored by Abdellah Zoubir in the 59th minute. Already ahead, this club from Azerbaijan actually had to play with 10 people after Elvin Jafarguliyev received a straight red card in the 62nd minute.
Interestingly, even though they lost in number of players, Qarabag were actually able to double their lead to 0-2 through a goal scored by their mainstay striker, Juninho in the 67th minute.
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Leverkusen itself was only able to reduce the deficit to 1-2 through Jeremie Frimpong’s goal in the 72nd minute. After that, the match became even more interesting when it entered injury time.
In the injury time round, Leverkusen was able to turn things around from being 1-2 down to 3-2 through two goals scored by Patrik Schick in the 90+3 and 90+8 minutes. This dramatic victory allowed the hosts to qualify for the last 8 on aggregate 5-4.
Leverkusen vs Qarabag Player Lineup
Leverkusen (3-2-4-1)
Matej Kovar (GK); Odilon Kossounou, Edmond Tapsoba, Piero Hincapie; Robert Andrich, Granit Xhaka; Jeremie Frimpong, Jonas Hofmann, Florian Wirtz, Amine Adli; Borja Iglesias.
Qarabag (4-2-3-1)
Andrey Lunev (GK); Marko Vesovic, Bahlul Mustafazada, Badavi Huseynov, Elvin Cafarquliyev; Julio Romao, Marko Jankovic; Leandro Livramento Andrade, Yassine Benzia, Abdellah Zoubir; Juninho.
Editor: Muhammad Perkasa Al Hafiz