Leverkusen, Feb 26 (IANS) Bayer Leverkusen’s Hakan Calhanoglu secured his side a 1-0 victory against 10-men Atletico Madrid at the first leg of Champions League’s last 16 at the BayArena here.
In a rough game with many fouls and yellow cards, Calhanoglu scored the winner an hour into the game Wednesday. For the visitors, things changed from bad to worse when Tiago was sent off for repeated foul play in the closing period, reports Xinhua.
The hosts dominated the match in the first half against the Champions League’s finalists from last year. However, it was Leverkusen’s defender Emir Spahic who worked out the first note worthy chance of the game when he rattled the crossbar with long range effort from 30 meters.
The visitors from Spain nearly broke the deadlock against the run of the game but Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno punched the ball away before unmarked Antoine Griezmann had the chance to nod home from close range.
After the restart Leverkusen continued their powerful performance meanwhile Madrid lurked for counter attacks. With an hour into the encounter Leverkusen opened the scoring. Karim Bellarabi assisted Calhanoglu with a back heel pass, allowing the Turkish international to hammer the ball from the penalty area into the roof of the net.
Josip Drimic had the chance to double the lead for Leverkusen before Tiago was sent off booking his second yellow card of the evening. With an extra man on the pitch Leverkusen protected the lead to the end to take a one-goal lead to Spain for the second leg.
“We have done a great job. We staged a well-positioned defence and were able to put the opponent under pressure. Thankfully we made use of one of our chances. This was overall a good performance,” Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt said.
Both sides encounter for the second leg March 17.