Champion Bayer Leverkusen twice hit the woodwork and missed a bagful of chances but could not score in a goalless draw against visitor VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Leverkusen, who travels to Liverpool for the Champions League on Tuesday, has now won just one of its last five league games, and is in third place on 16 points. Bayern Munich, top on 20, hosts Union Berlin on Saturday. RB Leipzig is second on goal difference.
Xabi Alonso’s team had Stuttgart on the backfoot from the start and in a one-sided first-half, the host missed more than half a dozen golden scoring chances and hit the crossbar with Edmond Tapsoba’s header.
Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nuebel was in stunning form, stopping efforts from Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo in the first half to keep his side in the game.
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With the visitor, who hosts Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday, not managing a single shot on or towards goal for an hour, Leverkusen kept pouring forward.
Victor Boniface rattled the post with a powerful shot eight minutes after the restart as Leverkusen picked up where it had left off.
Nuebel then had to come to the rescue again, first denying Nigeria international Boniface in a one-on-one in the 73rd before blocking a Florian Wirtz effort a little later to make sure Stuttgart got its point.
Stuttgart, last season’s runner-up, moved up to seventh place on 13 points.
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