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Nice (AP) - With the last lineup, Bundesliga soccer team Bayer Leverkusen saved themselves prematurely in the knockout round of the Europa League.

Coach Peter Bosz's team won 3-2 (2-1) at OGC Nice and will now play against Slavia Prague on December 10th for the group win.

The Rhinelander, who had been undefeated for seven competitive games and won the first leg 6-2, scored goals at the Allianz Riviera stadium through Moussa Diaby (22nd minute), Aleksandar Dragovic (32nd) and Julian Baumgartlinger (51st).

Hassane Kamara (26th) and Dan Ndoye (47th) met for the eleventh place in the French league.

With three points, Nice has no chance of reaching the next round.

Bosz had to solve a big personal puzzle when playing on the French Riviera, because he had to do without eight players and already had the next championship game in the Bundesliga at FC Schalke 04 on December 6th (6 p.m.) in mind.

Therefore, the not yet fully fit Karim Bellarabi and Nadiem Amiri moved into the starting line-up after an infection.

After all, the Bayer coach was able to give the young Florian Wirtz and initially also the recently strong Leon Bailey a break.

“We have to deal with these circumstances,” said the Leverkusen coach before kick-off.

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The Leverkusen dominated the hosts from the start with a lot of possession and first opportunities by Wendell (9th) and Patrik Schick, who missed from five meters.

The opening goal fell after a famous lob from Kerem Demirbay to Diaby, who converted the ball to 1-0 with a direct tap.

Four minutes later Kamara managed to equalize from the edge of the penalty area for the team of the 1998 world champion, Patrick Vieira.

But before the break, Dragovic, who scored in the 2-1 Bundesliga win in Bielefeld, took the lead again.

The too headstrong Schick shortly thereafter missed the possible chance of a 3-1 lead.

Instead, Nice came back into the game and scored again through Ndoye, who took advantage of a blatant defensive error by Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, to equalize.

This time too, the guests reacted quickly.

After a free kick from Amiri, Baumgartlinger headed to make it 3-2.

In the very entertaining game, the Leverkusen team had even more chances of a bigger win.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201203-99-565079 / 2

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Squad OGC Nice

Squad Bayer Leverkusen