Bonifatius conjures, Wirtz scores: Leverkusen also impresses in the Champions League

Bayer Leverkusen has started the Champions League season worthy of a German champion. In the impressive 4-0 (4-0) win at Feyenoord Rotterdam on Thursday evening, national players Florian Wirtz (5th/36th), Alejandro Grimaldo (30th) and Timon Wellenreuther (45th, own goal) scored for the Bundesliga club.

Wirtz is the first German to score a brace on his Champions League debut. He missed Leverkusen’s Champions League season two years ago due to injury, and last season the Werkself played in the Europa League.

“We didn’t control the game with the ball that much, but when we got through, we had great chances,” Leverkusen’s sports director Simon Rolfes told Sportschau. “We made excellent use of it.”

Wirtz takes advantage of early mistake

Rotterdam, Dutch runner-up, cup winner, Supercup winner and unbeaten in 24 league games, had a classic false start in their home stadium “De Kuip”. Central midfielder Ramiz Zerrouki lost the ball in the build-up to Robert Andrich, who passed it directly to Wirtz. The young star scored from 17 meters with his left foot, placing it in the right corner.

Four minutes later, Zerrouki almost made up for his mistake, but his tap-in goal from a corner was disallowed for offside. Leverkusen then had more possession, while Rotterdam had the most shots on goal, although they weren’t necessarily the ones to score. The best of these came from South Korean In-beom Hwang (15th, 29th).

Boniface with Masterpiece

Then Leverkusen showed off its individual class. Centre forward Victor Boniface held onto the ball robustly in the opponent’s 16-yard box and pulled out his bag of tricks: He faked a shot and in the same movement passed with his standing leg to Jeremie Frimpong on the right. His low cross was deflected and landed at the far post, where Grimaldo only had to push it in.

Just six minutes later, the Dutchman Frimpong set up the next goal during the away match in his home country. After a brilliant counterattack, he carefully crossed the ball to Wirtz, who volleyed it home.

Timon Wellenreuther makes a mistake

Shortly before half-time, Timon Wellenreuther unwittingly helped out. Feyenoord’s goalkeeper deflected a harmless header from Edmond Tapsoba into his own goal with a failed foot save. The former Schalke player and former German U-national player is playing his second season at Feyenoord and has been preferred over Dutch international Justin Bijlow since this season.

Palacios back again

After the break, Feyenoord played better, partly because Leverkusen did not do more than was necessary. Coach Xabi Alonso gave Boniface and Wirtz a breather by making substitutions in the middle of the second half. In the 80th minute, he also helped Ezequiel Palacios make his comeback – the Argentine world champion had been out for a long time due to a meniscus operation.

Leverkusen did not consistently exploit its counterattack opportunities in the second half. On the other hand, Rotterdam missed several chances and had a goal and a possible penalty disallowed for offside – so the score remained 4-0.

Leverkusen will now face VfL Wolfsburg (Sunday, 3:30 p.m.) and Bayern Munich (Saturday, September 28, 6:30 p.m.) in the Bundesliga before continuing in the Champions League. On Tuesday, October 1, AC Milan will be the guest at 9 p.m.

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