Wasteful Leverkusen's perfect start ends with draw
BERLIN (Reuters) - Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen drew 3-3 against Werder Bremen in a rollercoaster game on Friday to see their perfect start to the season end following two victories.
This was the first draw for Leverkusen in any competitive game this season, after they won their German Cup first round match as well as both legs of their Champions League playoff against Copenhagen along with their Bundesliga wins.
Home side Leverkusen, with both talented teenager Julian Brandt and captain Simon Rolfes out injured, have only themselves to blame for not killing off the game in the first half.
After leading 1-0 they hit the woodwork three times and wasted a bagful of other clear scoring chances.
"We should have been leading by a much higher score in the first half," Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt told reporters. "We wasted too many chances and were also a bit unlucky. We came back in the second half and even deserved to win but it was just not going to happen today."
Bremen's Sebastian Proedl drilled in the equaliser in the 85th minute after Leverkusen had come back from 2-1 down to lead 3-2.
Leverkusen, who visit Monaco in their Champions League Group C opener next week, took a deserved lead through Croatian teenager Tin Jedvaj, who netted the club's 2,000th Bundesliga goal and his second of the season.
They did not manage to score again despite a constant wave of attacks with Emir Spahic, Levin Oztunali and Gonzalo Castro rattling the woodwork and Bremen keeper Raphael Wolf making several point-blank saves.
Bremen did it with their first chance of the game on the stroke of halftime when Fin Bartels completed a quick break with a good finish.
"Leverkusen allowed us to stay in the game after they hit the post so many times," Bremen coach Robin Dutt told reporters. "I am very satisfied with how my team has developed so far."
With Leverkusen still dominating after the break, Bremen again struck against the run of play with Argentine Franco Di Santos scoring on the hour after yet another counter attack.
Hakan Calhanoglu's superb curled free kick made it 2-2 before South Korean Son Heung-min shook off his marker at the edge of the box with a quick turn and fired in on 73 minutes.
But Austrian Proedl spoiled Bremen's hopes of a win with five minutes to go, scoring from close range with his shot bouncing in off the crossbar.
Leverkusen are on seven points from three matches with champions Bayern Munich, who host VfB Stuttgart on Saturday, on four points from two. Last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund welcome Freiburg also on Saturday.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Mark Meadows)
