Blackburn Rovers will welcome Bayer Leverkusen to Ewood Park a week today with every confidence of progressing to the last 16 of the Uefa Cup after a late goal put a different slant on a match that had appeared to be running away from them.

The German team were leading 3-1 and looking comfortable when, with four minutes remaining, Shabani Nonda, a second-half substitute, struck a volley into the top corner after Leverkusen had failed to clear a cross from the outstanding David Bentley.

With two away goals to their name, a 1-0 win in the second leg will be enough to ensure Blackburn’s passage, although it is not scoring but keeping a clean sheet that might prove a problem. Haphazard defending threatened to end Blackburn’s European adventure last night, but Mark Hughes’s cause next week should be aided by the return of several senior players. “Obviously it was a very important goal for us — at 3-1 it would have been a more difficult situation for the second leg,” the Blackburn manager said. “Overall, we have to be happy with the result, if not the performance.

“We’ve lost a lot of bodies, a lot of our physical capability and the energy and the drive that ordinarily we have is missing in the team.

“We’ve not had the capability to dictate the play, but hopefully we’ll have players back for the second leg and it will be a different performance.”

Blackburn had enough chances in the first half to have put the game to bed, but they trailed 2-1 at the interval, a consequence as much of Leverkusen’s impressive attacking play as Blackburn’s porous defence. Jason Roberts will have nightmares about the chance he missed after 70 seconds. Bentley delivered a low cross from the right, but, eight yards out and with plenty of time in which to pick his spot, the forward swiped at thin air.

Hughes will have to take risks if his team are to achieve what he believes they are capable of and reach the final at Hampden Park on May 16, but the manager appeared to have taken one too many last night by starting with Roberts and David Dunn, both of whom looked off the pace and were substituted within a few minutes of each other midway through the second period. Thankfully for Blackburn, Roberts’s replacement, Nonda, fared significantly better and did not leave Hughes looking back with too many regrets.

With Sergej Barbarez, Stefan Kiessling and Andrej Voronin rotating positions to dizzying effect up front, the Blackburn defenders did not know whether they were coming or going and the breakthrough arrived in the eighteenth minute. Bernd Schneider whipped in a free kick to the far post that Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker, muscling in front of Benni McCarthy, headed neatly into the top corner.

Blackburn’s response was impressive, even if the equaliser arrived with a touch of fortune. McCarthy was fouled 35 yards out and from the resulting short free kick by Stephen Warnock, Bentley unleashed a drive that took a deflection off Carsten Ramelow in the Leverkusen wall and diverted into the net.

Ramelow made amends in the 43rd minute with a goal as fortuitous as the preceding one. Taking possession just outside the area, the midfield player let fly and watched in wonderment as the ball cannoned off Ryan Nelsen’s chest to leave Brad Friedel wrong-footed.

It was no less than Leverkusen deserved. Their passing was sharper and more incisive, their running more intelligent and panic-inducing. Blackburn, by contrast, were leaving holes just about everywhere. It was 3-1 by the 66th minute, although this time the goal had nothing to do with good luck. Gonzalo Castro drilled in a cross from the right that Schneider, defying his 33 years with a thrusting run into the area, stroked low into the far corner with a deft back-heel. It was some finish.

If Leverkusen thought that they were home and dry, though, they were sorely mistaken and a tie that seemed as good as over remains on a knife-edge.

Bayer Leverkusen (4-4-2): J Butt — G Castro, J-I Callsen-Bracker, K Haggui, M Babic — A Voronin, C Ramelow, S Rolfes, B Schneider — S Barbarez, S Kiessling (sub: P Freier, 85min). Substitutes not used: B Fernandez, F Stenman, T Baretta, Athirson, M Papadopulos, A Camdali. Booked: Barbarez.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): B Friedel — B Emerton, S Henchoz, R Nelsen, S Warnock — D Bentley, A Mokoena (sub: A Todd, 90), Tugay Kerimoglu, D Dunn (sub: S Peter, 65) — J Roberts (sub: S Nonda, 69), B McCarthy. Substitutes not used: P Enckelman, Z Khizanishvili, F Jeffers, P Gallagher. Booked: Mokoena.

Referee: P Vink (Netherlands).