Bayer Leverkusen were held to an entertaining 1-1 draw at Brest in the Champions League on Wednesday, with Germany starlet Florian Wirtz netting for the visitors.<\/p>\n
A third goal in three outings in the competition for Wirtz handed Leverkusen the advantage, but Pierre Lees-Melou crashed home a volley to level matters in the first period.<\/span><\/p>\n Both sides went into the match with 100 percent records from their two outings so far in the league phase.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of people thought we were going to be on the end of a hammering before kick-off,\u201d Brest\u2019s Lees-Melou told Canal+.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut we certainly didn\u2019t embarrass ourselves. It proves that we\u2019re a team that has heart, that plays together.<\/span><\/p>\n Wirtz, 21, sent the Bundesliga champions into a 24th-minute lead with an arrowed finish from 20 yards.<\/span><\/p>\n Wirtz nearly doubled up on 29 minutes but could only muster a tame effort at goal after dancing his way through three defenders on the edge of the box.<\/span><\/p>\n But it was Brest who struck next when a looping ball dropped to Lees-Melou on the edge of the box, and the midfielder lashed a volley into the bottom corner six minutes before the interval.<\/span><\/p>\n Both sides fought for the upper hand in the second half, with Brest surviving desperate Leverkusen appeals for a penalty after the hour when Jonas Hofmann\u2019s cross struck a hand, but it was adjudged to be in a natural position.<\/span><\/p>\n Mahdi Camara then stung Matej Kovar\u2019s palms in the Leverkusen goal with a powerful, but too centrally placed, half-volley with 15 minutes remaining.<\/span><\/p>\n Substitute Mama Balde had a golden opportunity for the home team on 87 minutes but hit the sidenetting as he closed in on goal from a tight angle.<\/span><\/p>\n Bayer coach Xabi Alonso was left to throw his arms up in frustration as the clock ticked into injury time when VAR again decided not to award his side a penalty after Hofmann was felled in the box.<\/span><\/p>\n Wirtz blazed a chance over the crossbar when well positioned inside the box in the 95th minute as Leverkusen sought desperately a late goal that has become a trademark of the side over the last season.<\/span><\/p>\n It did not come, however, as both sides were forced to settle for a point.<\/span><\/p>\n AFP.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bayer Leverkusen were held to an entertaining 1-1 draw at Brest in the Champions League on Wednesday, with Germany starlet Florian Wirtz netting for the visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9221,9222,221],"class_list":["post-20253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bayer-leverkusen","tag-brest","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20255,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20253\/revisions\/20255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}