Morocco’s Bilal El Khannouss scored for VfB Stuttgart, Algeria’s Ibrahim Maza responded for Bayer Leverkusen: Stuttgart won 4-2 at the BayArena in the Bundesliga.
The BayArena delivered six goals and a duel between two North African internationals. On Saturday 31 October, on matchday 8 of the Bundesliga, VfB Stuttgart won 4-2 on the pitch of Bayer Leverkusen. Bilal El Khannouss, the 22-year-old Moroccan attacking midfielder, scored Stuttgart’s third goal, his second Bundesliga goal of the season.
At the other end, Ibrahim Maza, the Algerian international attacking midfielder, stood out: a powerful strike hit the crossbar in the 33rd minute, before he scored with a header in the closing minutes. It was not enough to prevent his team’s defeat.
El Khannouss starts the move and finishes it
The Moroccan started the move as early as the 14th minute. After a combination with Deniz Undav, his shot was parried by Mark Flekken, the Leverkusen goalkeeper, and Ermedin Demirovic, the Stuttgart striker, pushed the ball over the line for 1-0.
Right after the break, in the 51st minute, El Khannouss scored Stuttgart’s third goal with a right-footed strike from about 18 metres, making it 3-1.
Maza hits the bar
In between, Jamie Leweling, the Stuttgart winger, had doubled the lead in the 22nd minute. Patrik Schick, the Leverkusen striker, had pulled one back in the 28th minute with a header from an Aleix García corner, before Demirovic completed his brace in the 65th minute to make it 4-1.
Ibrahim Maza first hit the crossbar in the 33rd minute with a powerful strike, before scoring with a header in the closing minutes. That goal was not enough to prevent Leverkusen’s first home defeat of the season.
Focus on the next fixtures
Stuttgart, who claim their third league win, and Leverkusen will return to Bundesliga action on the next matchday.
Both players should also feature in the next squads of their respective national teams, Morocco for El Khannouss and Algeria for Maza, according to Foot Africa.