Schick double gifts Leverkusen first-leg advantage over Olympiacos
| Photo: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images. |
After tonight's 2-0 first-leg victory in Piraeus, Bayer Leverkusen are firmly on the way to advancing past Champions League knockout phase opponents Olympiacos. A brace from Patrik Schick sees Kasper Hjulmand's side move a step closer to the last 16.
After dealing with Olympiacos' aggressive pressing in the initial exchanges, Leverkusen started to settle. Konstantinos Tzolakis was the first goalkeeper to be tested on 17 minutes when he was called into action, denying Patrik Schick from close range.
A flurry of chances arrived for both teams nearing the half-hour point. A outstretched Janis Blaswich glove tipped over a curling Gelson Martins effort, while Tzolakis produced the save of the night by flicking Ibrahim Maza's volley onto the crossbar.
After nasty clash of heads between Lorenzo Lirola and ex-Bayer man Panagiotis Retsos halted play, the hosts thought they opened the scoring. However, a VAR review spotted a touch from Mehdi Taremi who steered it to the net from an offside position.
Lirola's replacement Giulian Biancone came agonizingly close to heading in a set-piece on 53 minutes. Once again Maza was at the heart of all things good in attack as his ball found Poku to tee up Alejandro Grimaldo who couldn't beat Tzolakis.
However, the 23-year-old goalkeeper's clean sheet would be wiped out just minutes past the hour. Poku threaded the perfect ball into Schick who slipped in behind the last defender and calmly caressed the ball into the bottom-left corner in style.
Exactly three minutes later, the Czechia striker was left completely unmarked at the near post to head in Grimaldo's free-kick for 2-0. The duo almost linked up again with 20 minutes remaining but this time Schick couldn't steer his effort on target.
On his Champions League debut, André Luis offered energy with his menacing dribbles, but Jose Luis Mendilibar's side never pulled a goal back. The result puts Leverkusen on the cusp of the last 16, while Olympiacos have a mountain to climb next week.
