Leverkusen sweep aside fourth tier Saarbrucken in cup semi

Bayer Leverkusen made sure lowly Saarbrucken's dream cup run came to an end on Tuesday night as the Bundesliga outfit well and truly outclassed their opponents at the Hermann-Neuberger Stadion. Diaby and Alario put Leverkusen 0-2 ahead inside 20 minutes and then when it looked like the hosts were fighting back, Bellarabi, who later had to go off injured, made it three before the hour mark.

The home side were pinned back in their penalty area from the off and after a couple of dangerous blocked efforts, Leverkusen took the lead after 11 minutes. Peter Bosz's men passed the ball amongst themselves before Demirbay played a beautiful ball for Diaby who volleyed past Batz in the Saarbrucken goal. 

The Regionalliga side had not played a game since March after their league was terminated following the coronavirus pandemic. That lack of match practice as well as the fixture behind closed doors meant the home club were at even more of a disadvantage. Alario headed wide after 15 minutes before Batz made a tremendous save to prevent Leverkusen doubling their lead two minutes later. However, the Bundesliga outfit struck again before the 20 minute mark. 

Demirbay's cross led to a breakdown in communication between Zeitz and Batz and that led to the combined clearance being vey weak. Alario picked up the loose ball and kept his composure to put clear daylight between the two sides. Paulinho had three clear opportunities to add a third before the break, but he was wasteful in front of goal. Despite that, the visitors were cruising at the interval. 

 

June 9, 2020

There was a minor Saarbrucken revival in the second half and their clearest chance saw Perdedaj's cross flicked by Jacob towards goal and the Leverkusen goalkeeper had to make a fine stop. The VAR would have disallowed the goal had it gone in though. Despite having the odd threatening, they were still exposed at the back and they rode their luck on occasions. Then, in the 58th minute, the game was over. 

Uaferro could not clear inside his own box, Demirbay picked up the ball and scooped it up in the air to beat the defender before cutting back from the byline for Bellarabi to hit into the roof of the net. 

After that, the game became much slower. Saarbrucken had the odd chance for a consolation while Paulinho had further opportunities to get on the scoresheet. The most notable incident was Bellarabi going off injured 10 minutes from the end when he pulled a muscle just 35 minutes after coming on. As Leverkusen had already used their five changes, they had to play the remainder of the contest with 10 men. 

Little did it matter though. Leverkusen had overcome the potential banana skin and booked their place in the Berlin final on July 4th. For Saarbrucken, their superb cup run came to a disappointing end as Leverkusen's class was too hot to handle.