Leverkusen keep up perfect start to Champions League campaign with second win
Victor Boniface scored the winner in a 1-0 shut-out victory over visiting AC Milan at the BayArena on Tuesday evening that could have ended in a much higher scoreline.
| Photo: Pyaet, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
German champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen have preserved their perfect start to the 2024/25 Champions' League campaign, following up their victory over Feyenoord with a 1-0 home win over visiting AC Milan. Xabi Alonso's Werkself were able to deliver a consistently impressive offensive performance, yet were still aided immensely on several occasions by keeper and captain Lukas Hradecky.
Xabi's two offensive-minded changes to the XI he deployed against Bayern on Saturday didn't take long to make an impact. With some help from Florian Wirtz, Adli unlocked Victor Bonifcace for the match's first shot on target in the 3rd. Piero Hincapie forced Milan keeper Mike Maignan into action in the very same minute with a finish off a Aleix Garcia cross. Adli registered another shot on target in the 10th.
The German hosts thought they had a goal to go along with their impressive attacking start to the match when Bonfiace turned another quality Garcia cross into the back of the net in the 21st, but the tally was pulled back due to Jeremie Frimpong being in an offside position. Traffic at the BayArena nevertheless continued to move in one direction at the BayArena.
Keeper Maignan remained very busy throughout the first half, parrying solid Werkself efforts from Grimaldo in the 28th and Wirtz in the 38th. In both of those instances, Frimpong had the opportunity to turn the rebound in, but blasted his effort over the bar in both cases. Only former Dortmund striker Christian Pulisic (39th) tested Bayer net-minder Hradecky in the opening 45.
Xabi's crew came out of the tunnel determined to reward their stellar efforts with the opening goal. Wirtz again found himself stymied by Maignan in the 48th. Boniface finally scored a goal that counted in the 51st. Maignan's strong save of a Frimpong effort unfortunately counted for naught as Boniface was in the perfect position to stuff home the 1-0.
Hradecky prevented the Serie A side from responding immediately with a strong save on Tijjani Reijnders in the 56th and another repel on Youssouf Fofana in the 65th. Unlike in their most recent league encounter, the German champions didn't fall back and defend. Wirtz continued to drive the ball forward, setting up Frimpong nicely in the 76th. Unfortunately, the Dutchman missed yet again.
The final chance of the match belonged to B04 substitute Nathan Tella, who shot wide off a counter in injury time. Despite the low score-line, Germany's red company team can take positives from a mostly dominant performance in which they enjoyed a far better share of chances.