LONDON: Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen drew 3-3 against Werder Bremen in a rollercoaster game on Friday to see their perfect start to the season end following two victories — hardly an ideal warm-up ahead of their Champions League Group ‘C’ opener against Monaco on Tuesday.

“We had the game in our grip. The Bremeners didn’t know how to react. Then they score a minute before the interval. Of course it’s bitter,” said Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling, who missed a golden opportunity early on.

“I think they also did nothing in second-half. It’s not the end of the world, not at all, but it does hurt a little bit.”

Monaco fared even worse, as their terrible start to the Ligue 1 season continued on Friday after last season’s runners-up slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Olympique Lyonnais.

The principality club are still reeling from the departure of James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao, having picked just four points from five games.

Leverkusen’s draw was their first in any competitive game this season, after they won their German Cup first round match as well as both legs of their Champions League playoff against Copenhagen along with their Bundesliga wins.

Leverkusen opened the scoring in the 17th minute through Tin Jedvaj’s powerful shot in off the crossbar

but was left to rue missed chances when Fin Bartels equalised with Bremen’s first real attack just before the break.

With Leverkusen still dominating after the break, Bremen again struck against the run of play with Argentine Franco Di Santos scoring on the hour after yet another counter attack.

Hakan Calhanoglu’s superb curled free kick made it 2-2 before South Korean Son Heung-min shook off his marker at the edge of the box with a quick turn and fired in on 73 minutes.

But Austrian Sebastian Proedl spoiled Leverkusen’s hopes of a win with five minutes to go, scoring from close range with his shot bouncing in off the crossbar.

“We should have been leading by a much higher score in the first half,” Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt, whose side are on seven points from three matches in the Bundesliga, told reporters.

“We wasted too many chances and were also a bit unlucky. We came back in the second half and even deserved to win but it was just not going to happen today.”

Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco geared up for their Champions League opener against Leverkusen in the worst possible fashion as Corentin Tolisso scored a second-half winner for Lyon who moved to six points in Ligue 1.

Nabil Fekir opened the scoring in the 30th minute for Lyon before Lucas Ocampos equalised nine minutes later but Tolisso grabbed the winner 17 minutes from time with his first Ligue 1 goal, a low shot after being set up by fellow midfielder Arnold Mvuemba.

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014