Toppmöller rebukes slack Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen may have kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the second group stage of the UEFA Champions League with a 2-1 home win over Maccabi Haifa FC, but coach Klaus Toppmöller was far from happy with his side's performance at the BayArena.

Lacked invention
Goals from Marko Babic and Brazilian defender Juan either side of Nenad Pralija's equaliser secured a valuable three points for the German side, but Toppmöller claimed his players lacked invention. He said: "Obviously I am not happy with the way we played. We gave our opponents way too much space, didn't close them down soon enough.

'Lacked ideas'
"We gave them too many chances on the break and lost the ball too quickly. Furthermore, we lacked ideas, enthusiasm and the right attitude. I will have a word with the players in the morning, but the main thing is that we picked up three points."

Praise for Haifa
However, Toppmöller was quick to pay tribute to the part played by Maccabi but was not surprised by the Israeli side's combative performance. "They played just the way I expected them to," he said. "They defended very deeply and tried to use their pace to worry us at the back. I watched their last training session on Tuesday and knew that they had a weakness in the air. Luckily enough we got in behind them twice and scored with two headers."

Points that count
Toppmöller maintained that last year's beaten finalists in the competition were still in a good position to advance, having moved into second place three points ahead of Maccabi and Olympiakos Piraeus FC - who lost 3-2 at home to leaders Manchester United FC. He said: "Before the match I told the players that it is their duty to win the match for the club, but I can promise that the team will deliver a different performance in the next match against Olympiakos - as you know we have got a score to settle with them."

Aerial supremacy
Maccabi coach Itzhak Shum accepted that the opposition won the aerial battle, but was pleased with his side's commitment. "It was plain to see today that we are not good enough in the air," he said. "Leverkusen were by no means the dominant team but the fact that we couldn't control them in the air cost us dearly. We only let them have a few chances and overall we played really well."

Not good enough
He added: "Sadly we didn't get a point from the match. A few minutes from the end we had a great chance to equalise when [Guillermo] Israilevich was through on his own but couldn't score. Situations like this suggest that maybe we are simply not quite good enough for the Champions League. We have, however, shown Europe that Maccabi Haifa can play some good football and my players deserve a lot of respect for that."

Dream over
Shum admitted that his side were almost certain of exiting the competition at the first group stage. "I'm no dreamer and I take one game at a time," he said. "I haven't really thought about the next round yet but after this defeat I must say that it will be very hard for us to qualify."