CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PLAYER RATINGS | Atletico Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen | OneFootball

Bayer Leverkusen left frustrated as they let slip their lead and conceded a late winner to lose 2-1 to Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital.

The majority of the first 45 was very frustrating for Leverkusen. First, they had a Nathan Tella goal disallowed for offside then a Pablo Barrios red card for Atleti meant that they would be defending very deep. Leverkusen tried and tried to break down the host’s defence but saw very little luck and tensions did begin to flair. However, they kept going and finally, just before halftime, Nordi Mukiele’s cross was met by Piero Hincapié at the back posts who heads in the opener.

Leverkusen would regret their dominance in the first half as Atleti came out firing in the second 45, and Leverkusen could not handle this. A long ball played towards Julian Alvarez was not dealt with by Jonathan Tah and he (193cm) was outmuscled and pushed off of the ball by the Argentine striker (170cm). Leverkusen defensively then began to collapse and they struggled to handle the Atleti press with players such as Granit Xhaka making uncharacteristic mistakes. Die Werkself would then have a host of half-chances in the second half but nothing to challenge Jan Oblak.

Atleti then began to grow as time went on and another defensive mix-up allowed Alvarez to be played through and score his second of the game to secure the win for the hosts with their second shot on target in the game.

This will be a big learning point for Leverkusen as they look to try and reach the latter stages of the competition. Leverkusen looked very good in the first half but they let themselves go in the second half and this cannot happen if they want to not only go on a deep run in the competition against better teams but also want to catch up with Bayern Munich domestically. This loss as well as their loss against Liverpool early in the competition showed that Leverkusen still have a lot of work to do to become a force in Europe, which should be a reason for Xabi Alonso to stick around.

Defensively, Leverkusen shot themselves in the foot in the second half and Tah did not cover himself in glory with his (in)ability to handle Alvarez.

Leverkusen’s final Champions League league phase game is against Sparta Prague next week, while at the weekend they have a tough test against RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena.

Bayer Leverkusen:

Matej Kovar (5), Nordi Mukiele (6), Jonathan Tah (4), Edmond Tapsoba (5), Piero Hincapié (5), Jeremie Frimpong (5), Granit Xhaka (5), Exequiel Palacios (6), Alejandro Grimaldo (7), Florian Wirtz (5), Nathan Tella (6)

Others: Patrik Schick (5), Jonas Hofmann (5), Arthur (-)

GGFN | Jack Meenan