Few matches in the Champions League this year are likely to have fans as on the edge of their seats as this contest between Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma.
The two clubs – trailing a resilient Messi-less Barcelona team in Group E – both needed a win to keep pace with reigning Champions League title holders. Instead, they got a scoring frenzy.
It was Javier “Chicarito” Hernandez that led Leverkusen to a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead with a brace that took him just 20 minutes to get.
But the German giants weren’t the only club with a scoring genius on their side. In the final 15 minutes of the first half, Roma’s veteran midfielder Daniele De Rossi notched a brace of his own to send the match to halftime tied at 2-2.
In the second half Roma took the lead first with a penalty kick from “The Sultan of Swing” Miralem Pjanic. At the 73′ mark Iago Falque seemingly ended the game with a strike of his own to give Roma a 4-2 lead.
But as if Leverkusen had woken up from a catnap, their attack suddenly exploded in the final ten minutes as Kevin Kampl cut the score to just 4-3 with a breathtaking strike to the top left corner.
Leverkusen finished a comeback of their own just two minutes later with this goal from Admir Mehmedi.
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And with that, the two clubs – who both thought at one point they would be able to chase down Barcelona – left the stadium with one measly point apiece.
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