No "Later-kusen" magic for defending champs as Bayer draw yet again

Bayer 04 Leverkusen's fourth draw of the season means that Xabi Alonso's defending Bundesliga's champions will finish match-day nine in no higher than third-place in the table. Despite besting their guests VfB Stuttgart by an xG rating of 2.8 to 0.35, Bayer 04 Leverkusen were unable to find the back of the net in match-day nine's Friday night curtain-raiser. Eintracht Frankfurt, SC Freiburg, and even Union Berlin all have a chance to overtake die Werkself this weekend.

As had been projected, Xabi mirrored Hoeneß' 4-2-3-1 formation. Unfortunately for Hoeneß and his team, matters effectively went almost immediately awry for Stuttgart. Jamie Leweling strained his thigh on a run in the 3rd minute and immediately indicated that he needed to be subbed off. The Swabians were forced to play with ten-men until Fabian Rieder could be subbed on semi-warm in the 8th. The first-half then belonged exclusively to the the defending champions with the VfB unable to get a single shot on target during the opening 45.

Leverkusen began to engineer chances shortly after the ten-minute mark. VfB keeper Alexander Nübel had to make saves on Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo in the 12th and 14th, respectively. Edmond Tapsoba then narrowly missed with a header in the 18th. The hosts really piled on the pressure near the end of the half, forcing errors out of the Stuttgart back-line and producing a flurry of chances. A Tapsoba header off a corner hit the crossbar in the 41st. Flo Wirtz forced another quality save out of Nübel at 45+2. 

The defending champs remained dangerous after the restart. Vagnoman inadvertently blocked a strong Jonathan Tah effort in the 48th. Victor Boniface became the second Leverkusen player to strike the goal-frame in the 53rd, slamming a vicious effort off the post. Stuttgart woke up a bit after Bayer had to contend with their own unexpected injury one minute later. Surprise starter Nordi Mukiele had to leave the pitch hurt in the 54th. VfB sub Chris Führich - eager to reclaim his starting spot - shot just wide on the first real chance for the guests in the 61st.

The spark from the guests didn't manage to ignite much of a fire, however. Before long, it was once again Xabi's crew producing rapid fire chances. Frimpong headed just wide from close range in the 66th. Boniface somehow failed to beat Nübel from only four meters out central in the 73rd. At the other end, all the 2023/24 runners-up could manage was another mildly dangerous effort from Führich a few minutes later. Neither side could muster up anything spectacular in the final minutes as the match slow-rolled to an uneventful finish.