Only six goals, now without six: After the dream start in the Europa League with 6-2 against Nice, Bundesliga football league player Bayer Leverkusen started the first away trip of the competition to Prague severely weakened.
However, the failures of Paulinho (cruciate ligament rupture), Santiago Arias (fibula fracture), Patrik Schick, Charles Aránguiz (both muscle injuries), Lars Bender (neck problems) and Ezequiel Palacios (sick) offer probation opportunities for some stars who have hardly been used recently.
This was the case for national defender Jonathan Tah, who stood 41 out of 630 minutes of compulsory play. Or the 32-million-man Kerem Demirbay, who hasn’t been on the DFB team in three years, who hasn’t played for a minute in the last two games. Or for former national player Karim Bellarabi, who only came off the bench in the last three matches, but scored twice against Nice as a joker.Coach Peter Bosz announced that he wanted to switch to FC Augsburg on Monday in more than one position compared to 3-1. Although this is self-explanatory, because Bender and Palacios’ failures are already causing two changes, Bosz is sure to make further
changes. The central defenders Sven Bender and Edmond Tapsoba as well as offensive player Moussa Diaby, who played from the very beginning, could take breaks. Nevertheless, the trainer does not want to complain about the strain. “We wanted to play internationally, then you just have English weeks,” Bosz said: “It’s clear that it’s going to be hard, especially this year. But I’m glad we’re here.”
