Proof that Eric Roy did not see this match as a ‘bonus’ at all, he had already fielded a senior team with the return of Abdallah Sima, who scored three goals in the competition, and the irreplaceable Pierre Lees-Melou.
Xabi Alonso turned almost half without Granit Xhaka and Robert Andric in the middle and Martin Terrier up front.
Far from overconfident, that didn’t stop the reigning German champions from taking control of the match against Brest, focusing above all on making no mistakes and clearing the balls as much as possible against their opponents’ intense pressure.
They did the job admirably, but talent spoke in the end.
Lees-Melow’s lightning bolt
The first was when Jonas Hofmann’s laser in the center of the field was a much easier and more obvious pass to Nathan Tella, alone on the right, who broke through the Brest defense to find Florian Wirtz and leave half a second behind. Soumaila Coulibaly.
Marco Bizot tricked (0-1, 24th) to cool off Roudourou before going on the strike, eliminating four opponents at the entrance to the surface before sending a cold sweat down the backs of the Brest supporters six minutes later. it’s very soft and very centered.
Taking the lead for the first time in C1 against an opponent who had kept a clean sheet until then, Brest was at a crossroads again.
Nearly two years on and Roy’s arrival on his bench, Brest has been admirably challenged because he, too, lacks talent.
The lightning, or rather the roar of Brest, came from Lis-Melou, who looked like a fish in water in his first game in the “real” Champions League – a play-off against Nice.
Leverkusen never found the key
On Mehdi Camara’s almost innocuous pass, he positioned himself perfectly to take the ball at the bell and follow up with Matej Kovar’s perfect volley into the small net from the right (1-1, 39).
From there, the match was balanced, Brestois, decidedly unstoppable, stringing together a sequence of passes that Leverkusen wouldn’t deny, including one that led to a left hook/punch sequence by Lees-Melou on the surface, just a little too far (50th).
A recovery from Kamara on a 16-metre arrow boxed by Kenny Lala (57th) and Kovar (75th) from more than 30 meters were other banderillas for the Finistériens.
On the Leverkusen side, the entries of Xhaka, Terrier or Jeremie Frimpong did not provide the key to enter the Brest vault.
Even the most dangerous for the Germans was Ty Zefs defender Massadio Haidara.