Heroic, Brest holds on to Leverkusen!

Stade Brestois snatched a precious point against Bayer Leverkusen this Wednesday for the 3rd day of the Champions League (1-1).

In an era that gives pride of place to the powerful, the poster seemed like an anomaly. Eternal loser of German football, Bayer Leverkusen, which had broken its glass ceiling to make history by lecturing the great Bayern Munich at the end of a historic year, traveled to Guingamp to challenge the diehards Brestois.

A novice Breton team at this altitude, as we recall, but just as impressive. After having performed flawlessly by signing two successes against the Austrians of Sturm Graz (2-1) and RB Salzburg (4-0), Brest rubbed shoulders with the cream of the crop, the most hyped team of the moment in Europe. And Eric Roy’s training lived up to the event. It’s very strong.

We will have to count on Brest

However, everything had started as we imagined: quite impressive collective control from the German champion, a low and compact Brest block, and a certain tension between two teams which do not normally swim in the same waters. After a promising start to the match, Leverkusen found the opening through its emblem, the thrill player Florian Wirtz, author of a victorious shot at the entrance to the area to conclude a clear movement (0-1, 24th).

Another match then began, and Brest got its hands dirty. Carried by his audience in the neighbor’s enclosure

Costa Ricans, the Breton club has increased the scales to heroic proportions, under the leadership of its ghost Pierre Lees-Melou, still in the infirmary and in the dark a few days ago, and back in the spotlight.

Lees-Melou’s masterpiece

This Wednesday, in Roudourou, Lees-Melou looked like Steven Gerrard from Finistère. It was he who took the evening to another dimension by unleashing a marvel of long-range shooting to plunge the stadium into jubilation (1-1, 39th). It was he, too, who was in the oven and the mill in his position as a strategist, directing the game like no one else to put his offensive players into orbit.

Brest did not slow down in the second half. It was necessary against this ogre. Because Bayer had the spots to win, also, very logically, like Tah (69th). But in the best of all possible worlds, Brest could have brought down their opponent with an extra touch of realism. Camara made the public shiver, without success (75th). The score no longer changed. But Brest had already won. Third in the ranking alongside Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen, the Breton club can continue to dream.