Bayer Leverkusen: Sports director Carro rages

The mood in the belly of the BayArena was tense. Bayer Leverkusen’s next poor performance in the 1-1 draw against Mainz 05 angered managing director Fernando Carro. The referee felt his anger, but so did the players, who received an announcement in the dressing room. “I said in Spanish: You have to wake up,” reported the spirited Carro: “We didn’t show a good performance, especially in the first half. In the end we tried, but you can’t play like that for 50 or 80 minutes.”

For the Werkself, the draw was another blip in the race for the Champions League places. After the league defeat at Union Berlin and the adequate but weak 0-0 draw in the Champions League play-off against Piraeus, pace, conviction and ideas were once again lacking against Mainz’s defensively strong team. Bayer coach Kasper Hjulmand also complained about this: “It’s not just this game. It wasn’t good enough. There’s a lack of rhythm and quality. We lost a lot of easy balls.” Only Jarell Quansah’s late equalizer (88th) was positive, but the goalscorer also remained critical: “We’ve been saying that a lot lately: not enough energy, not enough intensity. We’re playing uncoordinated and have to regroup.”

But there isn’t much time left for that, as the catch-up game against Hamburger SV is scheduled for this Wednesday (8:30 p.m.). In addition to the sporting concerns, there are increasing personnel concerns because, after Lucas Vázquez, the next right-wing player, Arthur, was injured against Mainz. Club boss Carro also sought a confrontation with referee Tobias Stieler. “Where is Stieler, the idiot?” he complained in the catacombs, according to media reports. The trigger was the 67th minute: After a corner, Carro saw a foul on a Bayer player in the penalty area, from which Mainz initiated the counterattack to make it 1-0: “A Mainz player pulls him down, for me that’s a clear penalty,” said Carro. Coach Hjulmand also saw it that way: “If it’s not a clear penalty… We have the VAR, it’s unbelievable to me.”