Leverkusen 'raises white flag' in championship race

Leverkusen find it difficult to defend the throne.

At home, Leverkusen had 75% possession and 17 shots, but the Bundesliga champions' expected goals (xG) was only 0.71.

As the final whistle blew at the BayArena, coach Xabi Alonso looked disappointed. The result means Leverkusen are still five points behind Bayern Munich, having played a game more. If Vincent Kompany's men beat Dortmund tonight, the gap between the two title contenders will widen to eight points.

From the very first minutes, Leverkusen showed their superiority with a fast attack from Jeremie Frimpong. The Dutch full-back broke through strongly, creating space in the penalty area and then fired a shot, but the ball missed the goal by a hair.

After the missed situation, the home team seemed to have conceded an early goal when Andrej Ilic put the ball in the net after a quick combination, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

Leverkusen continued to control the game and create many chances. In the 30th minute, striker Patrik Schick had a delicate move in the penalty area before swinging his foot, but the ball went just wide of the post. Despite seven shots in the first half, the home team only had one shot on target, a number that showed their ineffectiveness in taking advantage of opportunities.

In the second half, Alonso decided to increase the attack by bringing on Florian Wirtz. This change immediately had an effect when Wirtz delicately passed the ball to Exequiel Palacios, forcing Union goalkeeper Frederik Ronnow to make an excellent save.

However, Union did not only know how to defend. In a rare counter-attack, they shook Leverkusen's goal with a dangerous shot from Lucas Tousart. Unfortunately for the visitors, substitute Benedict Hollerbach failed to take advantage of the opportunity when he shot the ball straight at goalkeeper Hradecky.

In search of a late equaliser, as they had done against Heidenheim, Leverkusen pressed forward in the closing minutes. However, Union defended firmly and kept their net, leaving the field with a valuable point.