Calhanoglu eyes Europa League

Failure to beat Barcelona saw Leverkusen dumped out of the Champions League, but playmaker Hakan Calhanoglu is ready to continue in the Europa League.

Javier Hernandez equaliser for the German side after Lionel Messi had put Barca in front, but the 1-1 draw at BayArena was not enough as Roma took second place in Group E, leaving Bayer to settle for third.

"It's just a real shame that we couldn't score another goal," Calhanoglu told the Bundesliga's official website. "We lacked a touch of coolness in the box, but despite that, I have to praise my team-mates.

"We played really well against Barcelona and created a lot of chances, particularly in the second half. Unfortunately, though, we just couldn't seem to take them. We certainly should have, and when you don't score it's always going to be a lot harder to qualify.

"We were a bit unlucky today, although saying that, I felt that we needed to be a bit better in possession going forward and should have waited a bit longer to see what would happen in and around the box. We needed to keep our cool slightly more.

"There are some excellent teams in this season's Europa League. We're really looking forward to it. It's obviously a shame not to be in the Champions League, but we're excited regardless and we want to put on a good show when we start in that."