UEFA Champions League
Round of 16
1st leg
Full Time: Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Date: 25 February 2015
Venue: Bay Arena
A single goal from Hakan Calhangolu handed Bayer Leverkusen a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in a UEFA Champions League Round of 16, first leg match at the Bay Arena on Wednesday night.
The home side dictated terms from the onset and had their first chance on goal in the seventh minute when a swift counter-attack from Leverkusen concluded with Lars Bender stroking the ball just wide from 16-yards out.
Six minutes later Mario Mandzukic had to come to Atletico's rescue when he cleared the ball off the goal line at a corner-kick.
In the 25th minute Emir Spahic was unlucky not to give Leverkusen the lead when his 30-yard thunderbolt struck the crossbar.
As the half progressed Atletico finished the stronger of the two sides and almost found the back of the net in the dying seconds of the stanza when an acrobatic volley from Tiago was brilliantly tipped around the post by the Leverkusen keeper.
The half ended 0-0.
The second half saw the home side start positively once more and they made their pressure tell in the 56th minute when Hakan Calhangolu was put through on goal by a clever back-heel from Karim Bellarabi and he made no mistake with a clinical finish, 1-0.
In the 76th minute Atletico thought they had equalised when Fernado Torres turned home a goalmouth scramble at a corner-kick, but the goal was disallowed because the assistant referee had adjudged the original corner to have gone out of play.
A minute later any chance of an Atletico come back was stunted when they were reduced to ten men following a second yellow card for Tiago.
Leverkusen managed to hold on for the win to take a one goal advantage into the second leg.
