4-0 Victory in Poznań – Four Goals, Two Penalties and a Sprinkler

It's a strange feeling when you're a Bayer Leverkusen fan and you finish a European night without immediately needing to book an appointment with your cardiologist. After the absolutely chaotic 4-3 win in Mainz, I was fully prepared for another one of those matches where our defence hands out gifts like it's Christmas and someone up front has to rescue the whole mess. Instead, Bayer simply went to Polish champions Lech Poznań and won 4-0. No drama, no collective nervous breakdown, and none of that classic Leverkusen speciality of turning a comfortable victory into an unnecessarily stressful affair. Almost offensively professional, really.

Of course, before we get carried away, let's acknowledge that Lech Poznań didn't exactly look like a team that keeps Europe's footballing elite awake at night. But still, four goals away from home in the Europa League are four goals away from home. And when the opposition needs its own sprinklers to interrupt your attacking rhythm because its defenders aren't doing a particularly convincing job, you know things are going reasonably well.