Bayer Leverkusen sporting executive Rudi Voller has played down a row between teammates Karim Bellarabi and Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez following the club's Champions League exit against Barcelona, saying: "Things like that happen."
Leverkusen were unable to beat an experimental Barcelona side at the Bay-Arena on Wednesday night. Despite 25 attempts, 16 of which came the second half, against the young Catalan side, Leverkusen were unable to beat keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen more than once in the 1-1 draw.
That goal, scored by Hernandez after 23 minutes, was not enough to make it of the group despite Roma's stalemate with BATE Borisov in the other group match. The Italians progressed via a superior head-to-head record between the two sides after they both finished the group on six points.
Toward the end of the match, Mexico striker Hernandez clashed with Germany international and fellow Leverkusen player Bellarabi, with referee Mark Clattenburg needing to intervene to separate the pair.
"Those things happen in football," Voller told reporters after the match. "We sometimes moan that we are too quiet, and now those two clashed in the heat of the moment. That's not a problem."
The two players clashed after Bellarabi wasted one of many chances squandered by Leverksuen after he and did not pass to his better-positioned teammate.
The footage of that missed chance, as well as several other opportunities, was shown to Roger Schmidt in a Sky post-match interview. The Leverkusen coach put the defeat and the lack of goals in recent weeks down to fielding one of the youngest sides in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
When the interviewer noted that Barcelona too played with a young team, Schmidt responded impatiently: "We can stop right here, if you have another question like that."
He added: "It's got nothing to do with the opponent that we didn't convert our chances into goals."
When leaving the interview after a match in which Barcelona had no attempts on goal in the second half, Schmidt said: "It will stay in memory all my life that we didn't make it today."
Leverkusen will now drop down into the Europa League, where they will join fellow Bundesliga sides Schalke and Borussia Dortmund for the round of 32.