UCL | Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Inter: Timid Nerazzurri fall in Germany

Inter suffered their first defeat of the Champions League season after Nordi Mukiele turned in from a chaotic late corner to give Bayer Leverkusen victory.

The Nerazzurri hadn’t conceded a single goal in this competition, but made the trip without Denzel Dumfries, Benjamin Pavard and Francesco Acerbi. Leverkusen were only denied the Treble last season by Atalanta in the Europa League Final, but were still smarting from a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool. Victor Boniface, Amine Adli and Jonas Hofmann missed out for the team currently third in the Bundesliga.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

It was a very aggressive start from the hosts, as within three minutes Andre Tella had volleyed a Jeremie Frimpong pull-back onto the crossbar from nine yards.

Hakan Calhanoglu’s long-range snapshot was deflected into the goalkeeper’s arms and Yann Sommer had to be at full stretch to take the sting out of a Granit Xhaka effort.

Palacios had an attempt deflected just over the bar and Davide Frattesi couldn’t keep his header on target from the Calhanoglu assist.

Yann Bisseck made a crucial tackle as Wirtz was about to sprint into the penalty area and Frimpong only managed to steer a cross-shot wide under pressure from Alessandro Bastoni.

Jonathan Tah’s strike from distance was probably going further off target before the deflection off Federico Dimarco, which made it skim the near top corner.

Stefan de Vrij made a crucial clearance after Bastoni’s mistimed header risked gifting a goal, but Inter finally conceded their first goal of this Champions League.

Every corner kick had been chaotic with crowds of players in the six-yard box and after one was cleared, Nordi Mukiele’s acrobatic attempt failed, but it was pulled back in from the by-line for Mukiele to drill home through a sea of legs from 12 yards.

Mukiele 90 (L)