Lars Bender is Leverkusen’s universal weapon. The Olympic silver medal winner was trusted to play at right-back in the Champions League match against AS Monaco even though he usually plays in defensive midfield. Bender and Co. had to settle for a 1-1 draw after conceding a goal in injury time. The 27-year old spoke to DFB.de about Leverkusen’s reaction to the 1-1 draw and looks ahead to Saturday’s clash against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday .
DFB.de: Mr Bender, Bayer Leverkusen can build on this performance despite conceding the equaliser late on. What did you think of the 90 minutes?
Lars Bender: When you watch the match again and see how well we played then it was definitely the best performance of the season over 90 minutes. It’s painful to only come away with the point. We definitely deserved to win. But you have to accept that a shot like that is going to go in. It was tough, especially because they scored in the 94th minute and we had managed to deal with everything until then. We already knew that it was a crucial goal. We did everything we intended to do until we let in the equaliser.
DFB.de: Bayer are currently third in Group E of the Champions League. What do you think about your chance of qualifying after drawing twice in a row?”
Bender: Things would have been looking very positive if we had one because we would have moved up to first place. Now everything is riding on the next home match against Tottenham Hotspur which will probably be sold out. If we win this game, then we’re back in it. Our performance in Monaco has given us a lot of confidence for our upcoming Champions League matches.
DFB.de: The team played consistently throughout the 90 minutes against Monaco, right?
Bender: That’s right, it’s a real shame about the result. I remember the match we played there two years ago well. We put on a good performance, had a lot of chances on goal but we lost 1-0. Today would have been a good opportunity to make people forget this. At least we got a point this time though. We gave a good performance, mainly because we managed to play well for the full 90 minutes. We haven’t been able to do this in recent weeks. And that’s what we want: to have the match under our control for the full 90 minutes. That would have been the case today if Kamil Glik hadn’t blasted the ball into the net...
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Lars Bender is Leverkusen’s universal weapon. The Olympic silver medal winner was trusted to play at right-back in the Champions League match against AS Monaco even though he usually plays in defensive midfield. Bender and Co. had to settle for a 1-1 draw after conceding a goal in injury time. The 27-year old spoke to DFB.de about Leverkusen’s reaction to the 1-1 draw and looks ahead to Saturday’s clash against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday .
DFB.de: Mr Bender, Bayer Leverkusen can build on this performance despite conceding the equaliser late on. What did you think of the 90 minutes?
Lars Bender: When you watch the match again and see how well we played then it was definitely the best performance of the season over 90 minutes. It’s painful to only come away with the point. We definitely deserved to win. But you have to accept that a shot like that is going to go in. It was tough, especially because they scored in the 94th minute and we had managed to deal with everything until then. We already knew that it was a crucial goal. We did everything we intended to do until we let in the equaliser.
DFB.de: Bayer are currently third in Group E of the Champions League. What do you think about your chance of qualifying after drawing twice in a row?”
Bender: Things would have been looking very positive if we had one because we would have moved up to first place. Now everything is riding on the next home match against Tottenham Hotspur which will probably be sold out. If we win this game, then we’re back in it. Our performance in Monaco has given us a lot of confidence for our upcoming Champions League matches.
DFB.de: The team played consistently throughout the 90 minutes against Monaco, right?
Bender: That’s right, it’s a real shame about the result. I remember the match we played there two years ago well. We put on a good performance, had a lot of chances on goal but we lost 1-0. Today would have been a good opportunity to make people forget this. At least we got a point this time though. We gave a good performance, mainly because we managed to play well for the full 90 minutes. We haven’t been able to do this in recent weeks. And that’s what we want: to have the match under our control for the full 90 minutes. That would have been the case today if Kamil Glik hadn’t blasted the ball into the net...
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DFB.de: Can you describe what Glik’s goal was like?
Bender: It’s completely normal for teams to play long balls towards the end of the match when they are trailing behind. They are often erratic and could fall to anyone and even a centre-back like Glik can put the ball into the net. I don’t know if he has ever scored a goal like that in his career. However we shouldn’t play down our performance because of the late equaliser. We also put on a good performance against CSKA Moscow. We are very able to compete in our group and we could qualify for the quarter finals if we carry out our game plan and don’t always concede in the 94th minute.
DFB.de: Bayer are in third place after two matches. The group is very even.
Bender: Firstly, It was important that we didn’t lose any matches. We still have every chance of qualifying but we need to win games. After the draw took place I said that we have to make sure we win all of our home games. That is really, really important. The match against Tottenham after the international break is going to be really challenging. But we have to get the three points.
DFB.de: You normally play in defensive midfield. But Roger Schmidt put you as right-back against AS Monaco, where you played for the national team during the Euros in 2012. Is it becoming your new preferred position?
Bender: That’s not the right question. (laughs) I accept every situation and I am willing to accommodate the needs of the team. For the manager it was important that we defended well in this match and we managed to do that until the 94th minute.
DFB.de: Your next Bundesliga fixture is on Saturday against Dortmund who drew 2-2 last night with last year’s Champions League winners Real Madrid. What do you think your chances are against Real Madrid?
Bender: We already know that Dortmund are a great side, but we have to carry out our game plan. We are also a very strong team of players and we can beat Dortmund. We got an important win against Mainz last week. It would be good to keep up our winning ways. If we give it our all, we could get the three points against Dortmund.”
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