Wasteful Leverkusen held by Stuttgart as Liverpool loom

Bayer Leverkusen were made to pay for wasting several chances in a scoreless home draw with Stuttgart on Friday, dropping more points in their Bundesliga title defence.
Leverkusen dominated the duel between last season’s top two sides in the league but failed to break through, with Victor Boniface, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong all spurning opportunities.
The draw means Leverkusen, who dropped just 12 points last season in an unbeaten title charge, have already dropped 11 this campaign and could finish the weekend seven points behind the league leaders.
Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso was surprisingly upbeat, telling DAZN: “I’m very satisfied with the performance and the attitude from the lads – we were only missing the goals.”
Leverkusen will need to regroup before Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Alonso’s former club Liverpool, who are one of only two sides to have claimed a perfect nine points in the competition this season.
“We’re really disappointed, that was our best performance of the season,” Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka told DAZN.
“We created plenty of chances — but we needed to take advantage of them. We were missing the last pass unfortunately and that’s why we’re disappointed.”
Leverkusen and Germany midfielder Robert Andrich said his side “deserved to win this game more than any other one we’ve played this year — but we couldn’t get across the line up front.”
Stuttgart were hit with an early blow when Jamie Leweling was forced off with what looked like a hamstring injury.
Leverkusen were utterly dominant in the first half but could not break through Stuttgart’s defence.
Frimpong had a 32nd-minute effort ruled out for offside and Alexander Nuebel got a hand to keep out a close range Boniface effort moments before halftime.
Stuttgart’s first foray close to goal did not come until the 60th minute but it was almost telling, Germany striker Deniz Undav’s shot gliding just shy of the right post.
Wirtz found Frimpong with a superb cross on 66 minutes, but the Dutch winger’s header flew just wide of the upright.
Boniface then went through on goal with just Nuebel to beat with 15 minutes remaining, but the Nigerian shot straight at the goalkeeper rather than squaring for an unmarked Wirtz.
Unlike last season, where Leverkusen conjured a miraculous series of late goals, the hosts were unable to break through in the dying stages, ensuring the spoils were shared.
Last season’s runners-up Stuttgart finish the night in seventh, but coach Sebastian Hoeness said “the table doesn’t interest me that much at all — it’s still too early.”
“We didn’t really convince, but we fought with everything we had in defence — I’m OK with it.”
On Saturday, league leaders Bayern Munich host Union Berlin while RB Leipzig, who are behind the Bavarians atop the table on goal difference alone, travel to under-pressure Borussia Dortmund.