Making the long journey to Crete proved difficult for Hoffenheim, who lost 2-0 here on matchday one, and their compatriots also looked off their best early on. The first chance of the match indeed went to the home side, as Thiago Nuss shifted it onto his left and fired across goal, but Janis Blaswich got down low to push it away from danger.
But the visitors started to improve after the 20-minute mark, and Klidman Lilo made a fantastic save to keep out Jonas Hofmann – the first of many in the next 15 minutes.
Patrick Schick was kept out by Lilo – as was Hofmann again – but the best of the lot was when Malik Tillmann hit one from close range after 18-yard box chaos, only for the Albanian stopper to stretch out his leg and deflect it away.
But his efforts proved in vain on 35 minutes, as a long-range strike from Afonso Moreira was only pushed by Lilo as far as Hofmann, who this time squeezed it inside the near post.
And Leverkusen doubled their lead via the same source just a couple of minutes later, with Hofmann hitting a perfect first-time strike into the bottom-left corner from well outside the area.
Not letting that disappointing end to the half get to him, Lilo’s heroics continued by denying Hofmann a hat-trick and keeping out a powerful effort from Aleix Garcia. But it was soon time for his opposite number to do some work himself, with Blaswich saving a couple of efforts while seeing Taxiarchis Fountas’ shot deflect just wide of the post.
But scoring on each of the first three Europa League matchdays wasn’t to happen for OFI, who had Lilo to thank for keeping the deficit at two goals – especially when he showed brilliant reflexes to keep out Miguel Gutierrez in the final moments.
Hofmann – who was only added to Leverkusen’s squad for this competition as a result of Martin Terrier’s injury – will take the plaudits, but a run of just one defeat in their last 17 Europa League matches suggests they are well on course to reach the later stages. Consecutive defeats are not what Christos Kontis would have had in mind, though OFI have at least now got their three matchups with top-five league sides out of the way.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonas Hofmann (Bayer Leverkusen)