Bayer Leverkusen won 2-0 over Lokomotiv Moscow in the Champions League Group D match at the RZD Arena Stadium on Wednesday (11/27).
Coming to the RZD Arena, Leverkusen carries the mission of continuing to keep hope of qualifying, after the previous match successfully overthrowing Atletico Madrid.
A draw in the domestic league against Freiburg, must be returned with a victory in the Champions League. Instead Lokomotiv Moscow should be more relaxed. Moreover, their first win in the Champions League when they travel to BayArena, last September.
In the seventh minute the Lokomotiv host was superior after Aleksey Miranchuk broke into the Leverkusen goal after facing one on one with goalkeeper Lucas Hradecky. But the goal was disallowed by referee Michael Oliver because Miranchuk was in an offside position when receiving a pass from his colleague.
Lokomotiv continued to put pressure on Leverkusen in the first round. After the threat from Miranchuk, it is now the turn of midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak who turns on the danger alarm for the visitors in the ninth minute.
Krychowiak’s shot from outside the penalty box almost scored after Hradecky failed to catch the ball properly. Luckily the ball that moved into the goal after the imperfect anticipation that could be captured well by Hradecky on his second chance.
The fun of attacking makes Lokomotiv forget the defense. Lokomotiv’s players were pressured when Leverkusen got a corner in the 11th minute.
After the corner there was chaos in front of the Lokomotiv goal. Eder who tried to throw the ball just hit Rifat Zhemaletdinov who was in front of him.
The ball collided from Zhemaletdinov’s feet slid into the goal itself while at the same time outwit goalkeeper Guilherme.
Two minutes later Leverkusen almost doubled the advantage through Kerem Demirbay’s free kick. But Guilherme was able to dismiss it and the ball was out of the field.
In the second half Leverkusen doubled the score through Sven Bender who scored with a volley in the 54th minute after receiving a pass from Charles Aranguiz.
Referee Oliver had a chance to check through the VAR officer before letting Lokomotiv players kick off.
This victory makes Leverkusen qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League, accompanying Juventus since Atletico Madrid lose to Juventus.
In another match Galatasaray were held to a 1-1 draw at Club Brugge in the continued Group A match through Adem Buyuk’s goal in the 11th minute at the Turk Telekom Stadium.
