Unlucky loss in Leverkusen

Zlatko Junuzovic runs away from a Leverkusen defender but his efforts were not enough to lead Werder to a win.
First Team
Saturday, 10.05.2014 / 14:20

Werder Bremen finished the 2013-14 Bundesliga season with a defeat, losing 2-1 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Despite taking the lead through Theo Gebre Selassie in a strong first half...



Werder Bremen finished the 2013-14 Bundesliga season with a defeat, losing 2-1 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Despite taking the lead through Theo Gebre Selassie in a strong first half, Werder saw Ömer Toprak and Heung Min Son score to turn the game around for Leverkusen. The Green-Whites end the season with 39 points for 12th place.

One change
Werder head coach Robin Dutt made one change to his starting line with Cedrick Makiadi moving into the midfield and Eljero Elia taking his spot on the bench. Werder were very concentrated from the beginning at BayArena with a compact defence and dangerous counter attacks.

Gebre Selassie scores
Werder jumped ahead 1-0 thanks to one of those counters in the 21st minute with Zlatko Junuzovic coming down the right side and passing into the box where Aaron Hunt slid the ball over to Gebre Selassie, who looked at Leverkusen keeper Bernd Leno and then converted into the lower left corner. The lead was deserved as the Green-Whites were the better team in front of 30,210 spectators.

Theo Gebre Selassie scores the first goal of the match for Werder (nph).

Equaliser through Toprak
The until-then steady Werder defence had a black out in the 33rd minute and Leverkusen hit for the equaliser 1-1. Toprak was not covered off a cross from the right side and was able to beat Werder keeper Raphael Wolf with a header. Bremen were not phased by the Leverkusen score and remained the better team after the goal. Werder were particularly impressive with their counter though they couldn't create any dangerous chances, as the match went into the break deadlocked at 1-1.

Son makes it 2-1
Leverkusen came out of the break with a lot of passion and put Werder under pressure. The Green-Whites had struggles against the hosts and Clemens Fritz saved Castro Gonzales's shot at the line in the 51st minutes. But Leverkusen netted a second goal just 120 seconds later as Eren Derdiyok's header went off the crossbar and Son reacted quickest, pouncing on the loose ball to make it 2-1.

Exciting final moments
It took Dutt's team until the 65th minute to get used to Leverkusen's aggressive style. But the Green-Whites generally came back into the match and had some good moments - though not the clear goal chances. The Green-Whites brought on Nils Petersen and Felix Kroos at the end for Philipp Bargfrede and Franco Di Santo but they couldn't change the game. Werder ended up losing the match 2-1 in Leverkusen.

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