FC BATE lost 4-1 to Leverkusen at the start of the fifth UEFA Champions League group stage on 16 September, BelTA informs.
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Turkey midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu netted twice in the rout as Bayer put the Belarus side to the sword in their opening Champions League tie.
Having a third-minute lead through Admir Mehmedi’s precise toe-poke, Leverkusen were pegged back by Nemanja Milunovic’s header 10 minutes later.
The first saw Hernandez send a cross into the danger zone, Illya Aleksiyevich botch an attempted clearance and the ball bobble off Calhanoglu to Mehmedi, who prodded in nicely with the outside of his foot.
With the 2-1 lead behind, Leverkusen picked up the pace to establish a two-goal lead through new arrival Javier Hernandez, who capitalized on deep forward pass by teammate Kevin Kampl to mark his first goal for his new club with 59 minutes played.
Making his full Leverkusen debut, Hernandez was the instigator as Schmidt’s side went ahead, Illya Aleksievich failing to clear from the Mexican’s cross and Mehmedi reacting first to prod home into the top-left corner.
Hernandez’s goal was no more than the 27-year-old ex-Manchester United and Real Madrid forward deserved as “Chicharito” justified replacing Stefan Kiessling in Leverkusen’s starting line-up with an impressive display.
Bayer Leverkusen must to win in this match, because the group is very hard and there are still Roma and probably the best team of Europe, Barcelona.
Bayer Leverkusen are looking for a European fillip to their domestic troubles when they open their Champions League campaign at home to Belarus’ BATE Borisov on Wednesday.
After a shock 0-1 home defeat to newly-promoted Darmstadt Roger Schmidt may be tempted to make some changes in attack.
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Calhanoglu rounded off the scoring with a penalty in the 76th after Filip Mladenovic was penalized for handball.
