Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 8:41 PM• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 20:43

Bayer Leverkusen did excellent business in the battle for European football on Saturday. At home, the team of trainer Hannes Wolf competed against Eintracht Frankfurt, which was defeated 3-1 after a nice fight. In the Bundesliga, the fight for tickets to the Champions League has become even more exciting because of the result. Leverkusen is sixth with 50 points and is chasing Borussia Dortmund (55), Eintracht (56) and VfL Wolfsburg (57).

The opening phase in the BayArena started very promising, as three big chances were noted in the first nine minutes of play. First it was Leon Bailey who tried his luck with a shot to the bottom left corner, but goalkeeper Kevin Trapp had an excellent save at home. Moments later, the closing post of Eintracht had to stretch again to avoid a goal; this time it was Karim Bellarabi who contributed on behalf of Leverkusen. On the other hand, André Silva became dangerous, but he didn’t have his sights on sharp either.

Despite the sweltering start, an impasse then arose, which would not be broken before the break. Florian Wirtz took care of the last feat of the first half, although he could not express Leverkusen’s field predominance on the scoreboard. Two minutes after tea, Eintracht only showed up for the first time. Silva entered the box from the right-hand side and put the ball back on Daichi Kamada, who then shot just wide from close range.

Halfway through the second half, the game was broken open anyway. It was Moussa Diaby who extended a ball from Aleksandar Dragovic and brought Bailey into position. The latter remained very calm and put it 1-0 on the scoreboard. That was the gate of the dam. Ten minutes after the opening goal, Bailey acted as principal and he gave Lucas Alario the chance to double the lead: 2-0. In injury time, Silva seemed to determine the final score at 2-1 with a surefire header, but immediately after the kick-off Demirbay recovered the advantageous margin of two goals: 3-1 on a pass from Diaby. Daley Sinkgraven played the entire game on behalf of the home team; Jetro Willems stayed on the couch at Eintracht for ninety minutes.