Eleven goals. Thirty-seven shots. One tactical mismatch that widened with every phase.

Leverkusen dismantled Oswestry 11-1 in Monday’s opening round of the ENG Division 1 continental group, leading 6-1 at half-time before 48,957 spectators. Gheote’s side controlled 61 per cent possession and put 17 attempts on target; Oswestry managed five shots, three on target.

There was no dismissal to distort the contest, either. Four yellow cards, no red. This was 11 against 11 — and thoroughly one-sided.

Four goals by the 36th minute

Leverkusen’s centre-forward, later named man of the match, opened the scoring in the eighth minute and struck again four minutes later. Oswestry briefly cut the deficit to 2-1 when their centre-forward converted a 13th-minute penalty after a home attacking midfielder fouled and was booked.

The response took three minutes. Santiago Sosa restored the two-goal cushion at 16 minutes, before Leverkusen’s leading scorer completed his hat-trick in the 27th and added his fourth in the 36th. Four goals from 10 shots, all before the interval, brought him a match rating of 10.

Jeremie Frimpong made it 6-1 in the 42nd minute. After the restart, a home defender scored at 49 minutes and Leverkusen’s attacking midfielder struck at 51 and 73, either side of Frimpong’s second goal in the 66th.

Nordi Mukiele Mulere replaced the goalscoring defender after 75 minutes and still found time to add the 11th in stoppage time, converting Bart Nieuwkoop’s second assist of the evening.

Why it became eleven

From a tactical perspective, gheote’s reset was emphatic. Leverkusen had lost 3-0 to Frankfurt two days earlier while using a 3-2-2-2-1 Counter system. Here they switched to a 4-1-2-2-1 with an Attacking instruction.

Oswestry’s fixture record, meanwhile, shows their match-day side was auto-picked into a 4-3-3 on Normal rather than using the submitted 3-2-2-2-1. That matters: TheJoker’s side had won their previous three matches 8-0, 5-3 and 4-0 with the latter shape.

The replacement structure could not contain Leverkusen between the lines or down the right. Six different home players shared nine assists. Frimpong scored twice, Nieuwkoop created two goals, while Sosa supplied two assists in addition to his own finish.

This was not a set-piece avalanche. Leverkusen won only three corners and all 11 home goals were recorded as open-play strikes. Their 29.7 per cent conversion rate helped produce the extraordinary margin, but the 37-5 shot count shows the dominance itself was no finishing accident.

Four Leverkusen players received match ratings of 10: the four-goal forward, the two-goal and two-assist attacking midfielder, a right-sided defensive player who produced six key passes and three key tackles, and Nieuwkoop. Sosa earned a nine after adding four key passes to his goal and two assists.

Credit where it is due to Oswestry’s Jack David Edwards, who still made six saves. Their left-sided defender also recorded six key tackles and the visitors’ best rating of eight. They were simply forced into reactive work far too often.

With the other two opening fixtures ending level, Leverkusen finish round one as the group’s only winners and with a goal difference of plus 10. They host Manchester Blue next Monday; Oswestry, alone without a point, welcome Firenze. One side has a system to build upon. The other must first get its intended one onto the pitch.