Leverkusen came from two goals down at the death to avoid defeat both home and away, ultimately prevailing 5-4 on aggregate in a blockbuster two-legged tie.
Any sense of a David-and-Goliath complex between the seemingly unbeatable Die Werkself and European knockout newcomers Qarabag was dispelled in the first leg, which saw Xabi Alonso’s much-feared Germans salvage a draw and preserve their unblemished record by the skin of their teeth. Returning to BayArena, the Horsemen once again proved that they were not to be underestimated.
Borja Iglesias spurned a trio of early half-chances for Leverkusen, firing over the crossbar on each occasion, and Amine Adli met Jeremie Frimpong’s cutback with a low effort that forced Andrey Lunyov into action.
But other than that, the Azerbaijani side minimised the hosts’ threat to great effect, and even had a moment of their own just before the interval when Juninho charged into the box and forced a shot into the side-netting.
If the first period was a case of cagey trench warfare, the second was an all-out slugfest as Qarabağ took a shock lead through Abdellah Zoubir’s back-post header, went down to 10 men when Elvin Cafarguliyev pulled back Frimpong, and then doubled their advantage via Juninho’s skillful finish – all within the space of nine minutes.
The unfancied visitors suddenly had a healthy buffer but needed no reminding that Leverkusen simply don’t know when to lie down under Alonso, and another last-gasp comeback seemed inevitable when Frimpong volleyed into the bottom corner with 20 minutes to play.
Substitute Schick struck at the death in Azerbaijan last week, and he went one better by netting twice in front of his jubilant home supporters, firstly making faint contact to turn in Alex Grimaldo’s low cross before heading in at the back post in the seventh minute of added time to break Qarabag hearts.
Alonso has less than a day to wait before discovering his side’s UEL quarter-final opponents, and they also have the small matter of a 10-point Bundesliga lead to protect ahead of Sunday’s trip to SC Freiburg.
Flashscore Man of Match: Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen)
Check out all the match stats with Flashscore.
Other results from 21:00 CET kick-offs
Atalanta 2 Sporting 1 (3-2 on aggregate)
