46th minute: Florian Kohfeldt makes a half-time change to give Werder more power going forward, with Jerome Gondorf on for Florian Kainz. He moves out to the right wing, with Maxi Eggestein moving into the centre of midfield and Zlatko Junuzovic going out to the left wing for his final 45 minutes in a Werder shirt at the Weserstadion.
50th minute: Bayer Leverkusen attack down the right and Retsos finds Volland with a driven ball into the middle. Pavlenka is there but he doesn’t hold onto the ball and it falls to Havertz. He was perhaps surprised at the chance, however, and so he blasts the ball over the top.
80th minute: After a cross from Junuzovic, Marco Friedl tries to finish from range but Jedvaj blocks the left-back’s shot.
85th minute: An awful decision from referee Robert Hartmann. Volland kicks Pavlenka in the thigh attempting to reach the ball and the referee blows up for a foul. However, Hartmann books the substitute Lucas Alario instead of giving the already-booked Volland a yellow card. Shortly after, he realises his mistake but he can no longer change his decision. Therefore Werder should’ve been playing the closing stages against 10 men!
90th minute: The whole of the Weserstadion rises to appload Zlatko Junuzovic as he leaves the Werder pitch for the final time. A real goosebumps moment in a game devoid of highlights.
90+3 minute: Full-time at the Weserstadion. Werder and Bayer Leverkusen play out a 0-0 draw.
Summary: The final home game of the season isn’t one that will live long in the memory. Over the 90 minutes, the goalscoring chances were rare, due to a combination of Werder’s solid defending and the Green-Whites not posing much of a threat going forward. Bernd Leno was rarely troubled in the second half, with attacks on the Leverkusen goal a rarity. The Green-Whites did much better in defence, with Veljkovic, Langkamp and co. holding firm and not letting anything through. This meant that a repeat of the heroics that Jiri Pavlenka showed to earn Werder a point last week against Dortmund was not necessary. All in all, a stress-free home game for the Green-Whites – and with 13 unbeaten home games in a row, it was a great send-off for captain Zlatko Junuzovic in his final game at the Weserstadion.
