“It was a historic win of sorts — Bayer Leverkusen had not won any of its last seven games against Spanish teams in Europe — and remarkable in the most enigmatic of ways. After the 2-1 win over Valencia on Wednesday night, players and officials weren’t quite sure whether they should revel in a rather sensational second-half comeback or be shocked about the opening 40 minutes, when the whole team had ‘disappeared into an abyss of horror,’ as Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote. Michael Ballack, a 35-year-old veteran who has been around the block a few times, declared that non-performance before the break ‘probably the worst I’ve been involved in as a footballer’.” SI