Matchday 33: Gladbach secures a late point at Bayer Leverkusen

At the end of a turbulent week and a hectic Sunday, Daniel Farke felt like a moral winner. “Chapeau, I’m totally satisfied with the performance and it’s a deserved point win,” said the Borussia Mönchengladbach coach at DAZN after the 2-2 (0-2) win against Bayer Leverkusen.

After there were rumors at midday that he had decided to leave, he was at least able to look forward to a successful comeback in the evening thanks to two bizarre goals. It is questionable whether the point, which was no longer considered possible, will help to keep his job beyond the end of the season. In any case, Gladbach will end the season in a double-digit place in the table.

Farke “proud of his team’s reaction”.

After the high five, Farke patted some players on the back as if he wanted to thank them personally. “I’m really proud of my team’s reaction,” said Farke, speaking of a deserved point win. As before the game, he did not want to respond to the rumors about his departure either. “The boys need all the support and they don’t need a coach who is focused on himself and his future. The whole focus is on my boys and I will always be there for them.”

Three days after the bitter semi-finals in the Europa League, Leverkusen have to worry about qualifying for an international competition again, but they have it in their own hands at the season finale. Amine Adli (15th minute) and Kerem Demirbay (20th) gave Bayer a 2-0 lead. But national team players Jonas Hofmann (58th) and Lars Stindl (90th) used two complete dropouts for Leverkusen to win a point in front of 30,210 spectators. In the fifth minute of added time, Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapié saw red after a hard foul on Julian Weigl.

Virkus about Farke rumours: “Simply wrong”

Sports director Roland Virkus had explained in “kicker” that the report in the “Rheinische Post” about Farke’s certain end at the end of the season was “unfounded” and “simply wrong”. He also denied DAZN again shortly before the start of the game. But since two days after the 2: 5 in the previous week there were rumors of leave floating through Mönchengladbach without comment, further cooperation seems difficult to imagine at the moment. Especially since the performance against tired Leverkusen seemed uninspired and lifeless for almost an hour.

Leverkusen go into the last matchday in sixth place with a one-point lead over VfL Wolfsburg. If they hold this rank, they would start in the Europa League if Leipzig won the cup, and if Frankfurt win the cup, Bayer would have to go to the Conference League. Leverkusen would only be an international spectator next year if they slipped down to seventh place and were successful in Frankfurt.

Leverkusen errors let Gladbach come back

In contrast to Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg against AS Roma, which ended 0-0 after 23-1 shots on goal, coach Xabi Alonso’s team were effective on Sunday and took advantage of the first two chances. Adli initially escaped after a nice pass from Hincapié Marvin Friedrich and tunnelled goalkeeper Jan Olschowsky with his left, who replaced the injured Jonas Omlin. The 21-year-old also made an unfortunate impression with the second goal, when Demirbay headed in from close range after a Jeremie Frimpong cross. Gladbach only had a chance thanks to help from the opposition when Bayer keeper Lukas Hradecky had to follow up twice after a shot by Hofmann (39′).

All in all, the Leverkusen team seemed downright asleep due to the harmlessness of the Gladbachers and only did the bare minimum with the Rome game in their bones. Which was promptly punished when Hradecky failed to control Mitchel Bakker’s disastrous back pass and slotted in Hofmann. Although Gladbach only slowly increased the pressure and only had chances in the final phase, Bayer seemed to be longing for the final whistle early on – and was punished again after a blackout by Nadiem Amiri.