Despite falling behind, Bayer Leverkusen managed to fight-back to claim a 2-1 win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Steven Zubar opened the scoring, only for Stefan Kießling and Julian Brandt to secure the three points.
Bayer Leverkusen handed debuts out to two summer signings, Jonathan Tah – from Hamburger SV – and Greek international and former Schalke defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos.
Roger Schmidt will be hoping his side can emulate the steady start they made to the last campaign, where they picked up an impressive ten points out of a possible fifteen, only losing once against VfL Wolfsburg, who humiliated die Werkself at the Volkwagen Arena.
Leverkusen went into the game with an unchanged back-line from their convincing 0-3 win in the DFB-Pokal of Wendell, Papadopoulos, Tah and Roberto Hilbert. They only made one change from the win with Admir Mehmedi being replaced by Heung-Min Son.
Hoffenheim summer signing Kevin Kuranyi returned to the Bundesliga today after his five-year absence. In the Russian League he scored fifty goals in just over 120 appearances. Rudi Völler, Leverkusen sporting director, gave Kuranyi his international debut for Germany twelve years ago.
Leverkusen had won twelve of their fourteen Bundesliga meetings with Hoffenheim, only losing once. Hoffenheim haven’t lost more games against any other side. Their away record is also beyond poor. In 2015 they had won just one of their nine away games in the Bundesliga, losing six.
Shocking start for the hosts
However, Leverkusen could not have wished for a worse start after just five minutes as the visitors got the opening goal. Steven Zuber ran through on goal unchallenged after Leverkusen’s offside trap did not go according to plan, as their two centre backs steamed forward while Hilbert and Wendell were left stranded. They played the 23-year-old onside who coolly placed his shot under Bernd Leno, finding the bottom corner.
The opening game wasn’t bringing the excitement that was built. The second chance of the game came for Leverkusen, who started to go on the front foot after conceding. Papadopoulos could only find the arms of Oliver Baumann after the Greek defender scuffed his shot into the floor.
Kießling levels the scores
Then Schmidt’s side had another chance go begging. Hakan Calhanoglu’s corner was met by the head of Stefan Kießling who put the ball well off target. A minute before half time, their pressure finally paid off. Some brilliant build up play from Leverkusen saw Karim Bellarabi’s cheeky back-heel find Wendell. He then thumped his effort goalwards forcing Baumann into a low diving save, but Kießling was on hand to score the rebound.
Hoffenheim came straight out the blocks at the start of the second half putting the Leverkusen defence under pressure. Kevin Volland cut inside onto his right foot, he looked for the spectacular but he couldn’t quite get the bend on the strike and he was just a whisker away from sending the travelling fans into pandemonium.
The hosts came fighting back and for a long spell of the game they looked the more likely of the two sides to get the all important second goal. Goalscorer Kießling looked to double his tally for the day and the season but he couldn’t quite get the ball out of his feet and sliced his shot over Baumann’s goal.
Heung-Min Son, who was linked with Liverpool in the summer, was next to pile on the pressure. The South Korean and Calhanoglu linked up but Son’s touch took him wide and his shot on goal, from a tight angle, went well-over. Shortly before the hour mark, Kießling came knocking again, Turkish international Calhanoglu was the creator once again but the former's header went wide of the mark.
Brandt finally makes the dominance pay off
This sparked a flurry of chances within a minute for Leverkusen, Calhanoglu tried his luck only to be denied by a brilliant save by Baumann, while Hoffenheim failed to clear and Son’s effort went high and wide. Leverkusen kept pinning Hoffenheim back and Markus Gisdol’s side couldn’t get out of their own half.
Papadopoulos couldn’t divert his header on target before Kießling failed to keep his shot down, the frustration was written all over the goalscorer’s face as he struggled to test Baumann. Twenty minutes from time, the long awaited breakthrough came thanks to 19-year-old Julian Brandt.
Summer signing Admir Mehmedi broke quickly down the wing, making to the by-line, he looked up and picked out Brandt on the edge of the box. The German under-19 international made no mistake in rifling his shot into the bottom corner and gave his side a deserved 2-1 lead.
The pressure didn’t end there as Bayer pushed for a third. Papadopoulos failed to make a clean contact with Calhanoglu’s cross and as a result it ballooned free, but only as far to Kießling who rose above his marker to head at goal - only to be denied by a defiant Baumann. As the full time whistle was about to sound, Mehmedi tried to mark his debut with a goal. He looked to find the near post but Baumann was equal to it.
Leverkusen’s dominance paid dividends as they secured their home win, grabbing all three points after falling behind so early in the game.