Football, Champions League: Leverkusen wins at Feyenoord

Florian Wirtz celebrating a goal with Victor Boniface.

Source: IMAGO

On Thursday, national player Wirtz showed his class in his Champions League debut. With his two goals before half-time (5th minute/36th minute), the 21-year-old made a fitting debut in the premier league of football. Wirtz wrote football history as the first German to score a brace in the first Champions League match.

“I’ve been really looking forward to the game for the last few days,” Wirtz told DAZN:

A goal by Alejandro Grimaldo (30th) and an own goal by Rotterdam’s German keeper Timon Wellenreuther (45th) made things clear before the break.

It was a very special party, especially for Wirtz. During Bayer’s last Champions League appearance in 2022/23, he had to sit out due to a cruciate ligament tear. Now the national player is finally making his debut – with big goals. He wanted to show, he had announced beforehand, “what I can do and see what I can do in the Champions League.”

The 21-year-old needed less than five minutes to do this. After losing the ball, the Dutchman Wirtz switched quickly and put the ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area. Feyenoord quickly looked for a response, but when the equalizer appeared, Ramiz Zerrouki (9th) was offside.

Coach Alonso, who had won the Champions League as a player with Liverpool FC and Real Madrid, then saw how his team, led by the strong sweeper Robert Andrich, increasingly silenced the Dutch fans in the notorious “De Kuip” cauldron. Lukas Hradecky, who was preferred to Matej Kovar in the Bayer goal, was on hand to stop the hosts from scoring a few goals.

And Leverkusen struck with ice-cold precision on the offensive. First, Grimaldo completed an attack that Victor Boniface had started with a cheeky pass. Then Wirtz was in the right place again when he converted a cross with a direct shot. For the fourth goal, Wellenreuther unfortunately headed Edmond Tapsoba’s ball into his own goal.

Wirtz opened the second half with a dangerous long-range shot (51st minute), but Bayer took a much more relaxed approach after that. After Hradecky had asked Quentin Timbers to score (55th minute), Boniface tried a quick shot from the halfway line, but was unsuccessful.

After a good 70 minutes, Alonso took Wirtz off the field. In the final phase, Leverkusen survived a few tricky situations unscathed. The Dutch team’s supposed consolation goal by Ayase Ueda was also disallowed due to an offside position (73′).

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Source: Reuters

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