Key events
Match report
Ed Aarons is at BayArena and your report is live. Please enjoy responsibly and thank you for following us.
“We started the game quite well,” says a melancholic Mikel Arteta. “We had a very good chance with Martinelli, who hit the crossbar, and if we score, it will be a different game.”
He attributes the goal to “not paying enough attention from the kick-off and then the tie changes completely. We had to stay calm.” However, the Arsenal manager waxes lyrical about how Madueke “changes the pace of the game, the dynamics, the threat – he had a big impact on the result.”
The other first leg matches of the Champions League round of 16 tonight has started – follow the Real Madrid-Manchester City action and PSG-Chelsea and Bodø/Glimt-Sporting updates below.
“Go and try to change the game,” he says. Noni Madueke on TNT re. the advice that Arteta gave him just before entering. “When you come in and your team is losing the game, it gives you that impetuous impulse to try to take risks, because you need to change it.”
On what didn’t quite work for Arsenal tonight overall, Madueke says: “The basics: on the ball we weren’t as good as we can be today in terms of threatening their area. But we will be better in London.”
The only 100% record This year’s competition is over! Arsenal, who won eight of eight games in the group stage, have drawn. But I bet this will feel better than some wins. Mikel Arteta would have been level heading into the second leg at home, but especially so after a flat performance and losing a goal.
Whatever your views Regardless of the softness or otherwise of that penalty decision, Noni Madueke has made a difference for Arsenal, not only from the bench today, but with useful contributions throughout the season. It has been a good signing. (By the way, here’s Alex Reid, filling in for Rob, since the big man had to rush out.)
Full time: Leverkusen 1-1 Arsenal
A job well done for Arsenal. It wasn’t a great match, but the result is king and they are big favorites to get through next week. In a game with few chances, Robert Andrich’s header was canceled out by a late penalty from former Leverkusen star Kai Havertz.
90+3 minutes Grimaldo and Havertz are almost booked for a corner kick.
90+1 minutes Three minutes of added time.
90 minutes “Surely set pieces are the meat and potatoes and/or roast of the game?” says James Humphries. “I can’t imagine George Graham’s Arsenal have much time for a (generically affects the furrin accent) _charcuterie board_, can you?
Where do Steve Bould’s little eyebrows fit into all this?
GOAL! Leverkusen 1-1 Arsenal (Havertz penis 89)
Havertz passes the low ball into the corner. Blaswich took the right path, to his right, but could not reach it.
87 min: Penalty given The VAR looked well and the decision stands. Kai Havertz is going to kick against his former club.
86 min: Penalty to Arsenal!
Madueke, who has made the difference since he came on, bursts into the area and Tillman brings him down. There wasn’t much to the challenge but a penalty was awarded on the field.
84 minutes Martinelli’s cross is headed in from six yards by Timber, who couldn’t get past the ball. Difficult opportunity.
82 min: Arsenal change Gabriel Jesús enters, Ebere Eze leaves.
82 min: Leverkusen change Jonas Hofmann and Equi Fernandez replace Exeuqiel Palacios and Martin Terrier.
81 minutes “Why is so much attention paid to Arsenal’s chess prowess?” asks Peter Oh. “What is Bayer, chopped Liverkusen?”
80 minutes It’s all Arsenal now, although Janis Blaswich’s gloves remain largely untouched.
79 minutes Madueke’s usual inswinger heads towards the near post. They need Madueke to win the corners and Saka to take them.
78 minutes Madueke runs at his man to win a rare corner for Arsenal…
77 minutes Kofane leads another Leverkusen breakaway, slipping a defender on the edge of the D and laying the ball off to Garcia. Shoot high and wide.
76 minutes “Charcuterie!!” writes Matt Dony. “Okay, we can all stop now. Joe Pearson has made the biggest joke imaginable about The Guardian in an MBM. All of that led us to this moment. Take a bow, son. And let’s move on.”
75 minutes: Leverkusen change Ibrahim Maza is replaced by Malik TIllman.
75 min: Arsenal change Warm applause from both groups of fans when Kai Havertz, former member of this parish, replaces Viktor Gyokeres.
74 minutes Martinelli beats his man and lifts an adequate cross that barely evades Gyokeres.
73 minutes A lot of pressure from Arsenal now, but it’s all a bit sterile. Madueke has been doing well (and, more importantly, urgent) since she arrived.
71 minutes “With all this talk about a ‘selection of great defenders’ and ‘meat chess’, I can only think of set pieces as the football equivalent of charcuterie boards,” writes Joe Pearson. “But who gets the decorative herbs and the handful of unwanted olives?”
That’s my favorite description of Lionel Messi.
69 minutes Yellow card for Zubimendi for a foul on someone. He won the ball but kept going with his cleats; You can argue it both ways.
68 minutes As you asked, Christian Kofane still looks classy in almost everything he does. If he’s not a star of the future, we’d better pack our bags and go home.
67 minutes I doubt Arsenal will worry too much if this ends 1-0, especially now that there is no away goals rule. But 2-0 would be a different story, so this is an important last quarter of the game. Leverkusen played excellently to limit Arsenal to so few opportunities.
65 minutes Raya charges to 10 yards from the halfway line to beat Kofane and launch a long ball forward. Excellent play by one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
64 minutes “If it’s true that Arsenal can’t defend corners at the far post, they’ll have their hands full with Everton on Saturday,” says Matt Burtz, “because they’re a team that likes to do exactly that, with a selection of great defenders to head towards goal too.”
“A selection of great defenders” is my favorite description of James Tarkowski.
62 minutes A caution for Palacios for a late tackle on Zubimendi. The referee took advantage and then backed off once the rally ran out.
60 min: Arsenal change Noni Madueke replaces the faded Bukayo Saka.
59 minutes Rice’s floater hits someone, possibly Hincapie, and he stays back for a goal kick.
59 minutes This is effectively a penalty corner for Arsenal. The rice is gone…
58 minutes Arsenal have stopped Leverkusen’s enthusiasm and are beginning to dominate possession again. Martinelli receives a foul fair outside the area on the left wing of Poku, which bears his name.
56 minutes “It didn’t seem like a particularly difficult corner from Leverkusen, but they still scored,” writes Kári Tulinius. “It makes me wonder if the meat chess that is the modern Premier League dead ball situation has left English defenses used to dealing with a normal set piece.”
MEAT CHESS! That’s the football phrase of the year. It could be the phrase of the year and that’s it.
54 minutes Scott Murray has the team news ahead of Real Madrid-Manchester City.
53 minutes There is still no response from Arsenal. In fact, Leverkusen is the most active and determined team at the moment.
49 minutes That goal led to a (friendly) exchange between Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand and Arsenal’s set piece coach, I forget his name.
48 minutes Well, that has changed the mood.
GOAL! Leverkusen 1-0 Arsenal (Andrich 46′)
It was a temporary respite for Arsenal. The resulting corner, on the right, was curled extravagantly past the far post by Grimaldo. Andrich arrived late, curiously unmarked, and walked decisively past Raya.
46 min: Good save from Raya!
Leverkusen almost took the lead within 10 seconds. Kofane finds Grimaldo, whose early cross is headed towards goal by the leaping Terrier and Raya kicks it over the bar. That’s a fabulous save.
46 minutes The second half is underway.
half time reading
Did you hear the one about the game that produced 36 red cards?
Half-time: Leverkusen 0-0 Arsenal
Lots of probing, little penetration. Gabriel Martinelli came closest to scoring when he hit the crossbar after a clear move by Arsenal. At the other end, Leverkusen’s teenage striker Christian Kofane caught the eye without creating anything of note.
45+1 minutes Nothing comes out of the corner. There will be two minutes of added time.
45 minutes Kofane has a 20-metre shot blocked by Saliba after a quick Leverkusen break. Maza goes back in the play and wins a corner.
43 minutes “The almost invincible Bayer team feels like it has come and gone very quickly,” writes Zach Neeley. “His manager has already left and been fired from that new job*, Ange was fired from Forest a while ago and started mid-season! Compared to all that, Arsenal slowly building up for a few years before winning the league would definitely be old-fashioned.”
* Possibly next time he takes over at Liverpool, where Klopp’s replacement has already won the league and lost its way (more or less)
41 minutes Gyokeres turns smartly and finds Eze. He feeds Martinelli, whose nothing crossed is clear.
Gyokeres looked very good tonight.
39 minutes Both teams continue to play with their guard up. You can understand why. Leverkusen distrusts Arsenal’s quality; Arsenal know they have home advantage in the second leg.