Sunday evening witnessed the clash between Champions League contenders Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt at the BayArena. Before the match, Leverkusen placed fifth on the league table, with three points separating them from Frankfurt’s fourth spot.
The appointment of Peter Bosz in January has clearly had a big impact on how the club played this season. Compared to Heiko Herrlich’s seven wins in the first stage, Bosz helped Leverkusen secure nine wins out of 14 matches. This kept their hope of qualifying for the Champions League alive and three points would consolidate their expectation.
Frankfurt have continued their improvement throughout the season in a tremendous way. Adi Hütter’s decision to keep and elevate Niko Kovač’s tactic helped the club reach the semi-final of the Europa League. At the same time, they were on the front foot of securing the last spot to the Champions League next season but they had an awful day at the BayArena, conceding six goals and only scoring once. They were being overplayed by Leverkusen for the majority of the time and couldn’t play in the way that they wanted to.
This tactical analysis will help you understand why Leverkusen were outstanding throughout the match. We will also use statistics to analyse the factors that contributed to Frankfurt’s loss.
Lineups
Bosz lined his side up in a 4-2-3-1, with Sven Bender and Jonathan Tah playing in the central of the defence. On the right-hand side, Lars Bender came in for Mitchell Weiser. In front of them, Julian Baumgartlinger and Charles Aránguiz acted as double pivots. Up front, Bosz hoped the chemistry between Kai Havertz and Julian Brandt could help in creating chances for Lucas Alario.
Leverkusens style of play
Right at the start of the game, Leverkusen showed their intention to dominate the possession. Whenever they tried to build attacks from the back, they formed a 3-2-4-1 formation. Lars Bender usually joins up with the midfielders and his colleagues would move horizontally to form a three-man defence. Because Frankfurt usually played with a high defensive line, this helped them to overload the opposite half. At the same time, they still had five players in their own half to help with the build-up.
By utilising the passing ability of Tah and Sven Bender, they wanted to shorten the build-up time. The central defenders would play a vertical pass towards the attacking midfielder and signal their teammates to move into spaces. They also had a second choice, making a short pass towards Baumgartlinger and Aránguiz. The Chilean midfielder has the ability to dribble the ball up the pitch. He would drag along some of Frankfurt players and create spaces for his teammates to move in.
