Atletico Madrid vs Bayer Leverkusen

Champions League 2014/15 – Second round 2nd leg (0-1 first leg)

When: 7.45pm UK time – Tuesday 17th March 2015

Where: Vicente Calderon, Madrid

W ith Bayer Leverkusen currently fourth in the Bundesliga, the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal and with one eye on a place in the Champions League quarter finals following a first-leg home win against Atlético Madrid, Roger Schmidt is on course to achieve, or even succeed, his pre-season ambitions in his first season in the BayArena hotseat.

Leverkusen fans began the season with much hope. A team already full of young talent, the Werkself acquired the services of Schmidt after impressing with his brand of energetic attacking football at Red Bull Salzburg and he presided over the acquisitions of Josip Drmic and Hakan Calhanoglu from Nürnburg and Hamburg respectively.

They joined an attack spearheaded by the consistently prolific Stefan Kießling and supplied by Korean forward Son Heung-Min, who had been his country’s star performer in a forgettable World Cup campaign. Highly-rated 18-year-old Julian Brandt also looked set to emerge as German youth football’s creative midfielder conveyor belt continues to produce extraordinary prospects.

Schmidt stamped his style on his new side with immediate effect, taking merely nine seconds for an episode of electric pressing and pulsating pace to force Borussia Dortmund debutant Matthias Ginter into an error that enabled Karim Bellarabi to score the quickest goal in Bundesliga history on the season’s opening day.

SEE ALSO: Atletico Madrid vs Bayer Leverkusen – 3 key battles

Bellarabi, alongside Son and Calhanoglu, implemented a fluid yet robust performance of extreme pressing that was very much reflective of Jürgen Klopp’s back-to-back title winning sides. Bayer now played with ferocious speed and were fully attack-minded, reflected in the 19 goals they scored in their first five games in all competitions.

Heung-Min Son – Bayer’s South Korean sensation

22-year-old Son was the shining light in the opening stages of the season and shone particularly in the Champions League with goals in both legs of the qualifier against FC Copenhagen. The former Hamburg forward was pivotal in Bayer’s key away trip to Zenit St. Petersburg as his brace in a man-of-the-match performance practically confirmed Bayer’s progression to the knockout phase.

After disappointment in the Asian Cup, Son returned to help resurrect Bayer’s sluggish start to the Ruckründe. In his first start back the BayArena side were 3-0 down at halftime to Wolfsburg but the Korean’s second-half hat-trick, a mixture of fortuitous goal-keeping and expert finishing, had the home side on the verge of a point before Bas Dost’s fourth of the game gave the visitors a last-gasp 5-4 victory in a thrilling match.

Now amongst the Bundesliga’s deadliest finishers, Son is developing into a key attacking threat that defenders hate to play against. As he can perform on either flank or through the middle, his roaming style enables him to exploit his opponents’ inability to mark him, opening up pockets of space for him to cause damage with either foot.

SEE ALSO: Bayer Leverkusen featuring heavily in our 10 best Bundesliga youngsters to watch in 2015

Hakan Calhanoglu – the first leg difference-maker

One his partners in crime and a fellow former Dinosaurier, Hakan Calhanoglu is also enjoying a progressive season. The Turkish creative midfielder arrived in Leverkusen with a reputation as a deadly set-piece specialist and he hasn’t disappointed, with a return of 10 goals in all competitions, three splendid free-kicks and a penalty in the Bundesliga.

Calhanoglu has an intelligence that allows him to operate with clever movement to create dangerous situations. In the first-leg against Atlético Madrid, his run on the overlap was found when a delightful Bellarabi flick played the ball into his path, which he powered past the hapless Moyá into the top corner with an unstoppable drive.

The most important quality that the 21-year-old gives his team is his composure on the ball. Thoughtful and imaginative, he can carve out opportunities with his weapon of a right foot, often finding the probing runs of teammates to either start or complete an attack.

Josip Drmic – the emerging star striker



Drmic didn’t enjoy the easiest of starts to life in Leverkusen, starting only five Bundesliga games for the Werkself because the main obstacle to more opportunities, Leverkusen old-timer Stefan Kießling, started the season in prolific form. Bayer were eager to acquire the services of the Swiss international after he finished as Bundelisga’s third top scorer in the 2013-2014 campaign, a feat he achieved whilst playing for relegated Nürnburg.

After replacing Kießling at half-time after a dreadful start to the Wolfsburg game, the 22-year-old has started five of the previous six, having been just a substitute for the Freiburg match due to a rest following his exploits against Atléti the previous Wednesday.

Drmic’s return of three goals in these appearances look to have given him solid credentials to claim the central prong in Bayer’s attack. His brace against Stuttgart, a well-taken pair of striker’s goals, has surely cemented his place in the starting eleven for the trip to the Vicente Calderón.

PREVIOUSLY: Labouring at Leverkusen – Drmic struggling to establish himself

Julian Brandt – the teenager waiting in the wings



Another of Bayer’s young talents who hasn’t featured as much as he would have liked is Julian Brandt. With many a watchful eye monitoring his progress, the former Wolfsburg starlet was keen to add to his sole full-Bundesliga match but has been limited to only a few glimpses of playing time.

He replaced Calhanoglu in the starting line-up following the Turk’s abject Wolfsburg performance but failed to get involved against Augsburg and was removed before the hour mark. Reinstated for the DFB-Pokal fixture against second tier Kaiserslautern, Brandt displayed a calm, mature performance in a 2-0 extra-time win.

The main factor in Brandt’s residence on the Bayer bench has been the form of Karim Bellarabi. The 24-year-old is blessed with frightening speed and an eye for goal that has seen him already break double figures in the league this season. The Berlin-born winger’s form has seen him start every Bundesliga game under Schmidt with a level of consistency and ability that has earned him his first international caps with the Germany senior side.

A true exponent of Schmidt’s style, Bellarabi is fast, direct and dedicated to the system which enables his side to break at speed and constantly harass the opposition for a full ninety minutes.

Whilst defending from the front is key in Schmidt’s system, his defence can be accused of a sloppy inconsistency this term but they have managed to keep five clean sheets in a row in all competitions.

Time to take Bayer Leverkusen seriously?

To be taken seriously as a contender for either Bundesliga or Champions League title, the defence and goalkeeping situation is something Schmidt needs to amend – especially if they are to keep the likes of Mario Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann at bay in the second leg.

SEE ALSO: How Antoine Griezmann became Atletico Madrid’s key man

On-loan Schalke defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos, one of Europe’s highly rated centre-backs before an injury plagued couple of seasons, appears to be a successor for the veteran Emir Spahic, but he needs to regain a match sharpness that still isn’t 100%. He is gradually improving though, and looked to be his solid, yet slightly erratic self, in the first-leg.

Bayer are also currently missing the services of Croatian teenager Tin Jedvaj, who after joining on-loan from Roma, made his move to Germany permanent in January. He has since been missing through injury, but the full-back possesses all the qualities needed to become one of Europe’s best. He can perform in both boxes, with two finely taken goals at the beginning of the season confirming his versatility.

A concern Schmidt may want to address in the summer is Bernd Leno. The 23-year-old is in his fourth season as Bayer’s number one but is yet to fully achieve the potential that made Robin Dutt, and then Sami Hyypiä, trust him as first choice.

The former German under-21 international has ability yet lacks consistency. Time is fully on his side and he could yet challenge Manuel Neuer to an international place eventually but he still makes costly errors that title-chasing ‘keepers don’t often make.

A full-bloodied encounter full of speed is expected at the Vicente Calderón this week, as Diego Simeone’s side are no strangers to utilising their pace in order to unsettle opponents.

Defensively, Bayer Leverkusen have worries, and are still not quite there. However, if they can sort that out, they have enough skill, talent and attacking threat to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals, and a favorable draw in a competition that does like the odd surprise could see Schmidt’s men draw comparisons to the Michael Ballack and Yildiray Bastürk side that left the 2002 final as runners-up.

(photo credit: #1 via @bayer04fussball on Twitter, #via Wikipedia Commons)