Xabi Alonso wants Bayer Leverkusen to click through the gears after they edged out Jena in the DFB-Pokal.
Jonas Hofmann's header was enough to send holders Leverkusen into the next round with a 1-0 win on Wednesday.
Alonso's side only allowed their lower-league opponents to have six shots, but worryingly for the Bundesliga champions, those did accumulate to 1.04 expected goals (xG).
Indeed, Hamza Muqaj missed a golden opportunity for the hosts worth 0.75 xG in second-half stoppage time.
With RB Leipzig next up in the league, Alonso knows his team have to sharpen up.
"[We faced] a good opponent and it wasn't easy," said Alonso.
"We have to work on a few things, but we are in the next round and that's what counts. Now we go straight into preparing for the next league game."
Leverkusen did bolster their defensive options, though with the signing of Nordi Mukiele.
The versatile defender has joined on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, and could be in line to make his debut against his former club Leipzig on Saturday.
Odilon Kossounou, meanwhile, has left Leverkusen to sign for Atalanta, who beat Alonso's team in last season's Europa League final, on loan.
Atletico Madrid 0-0 Espanyol: Simeone's men held at home
Atletico Madrid had 25 attempts at goal but could not find the breakthrough as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Espanyol in LaLiga on Wednesday.
Espanyol are the only team yet to score in LaLiga and they showed no signs of breaking their duck in a one-sided contest at Estadio Civitas Metropolitano.
Yet despite mustering 2.71 expected goals (xG), Atleti were unable to blow the door down.
New signings Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth came close to opening the scoring in the first half, while Rodrigo Riquelme had two goals chalked off for offside, the first after a lengthy VAR check and the second in added time.
Espanyol's rearguard held firm as goalkeeper Joan Garcia made seven saves to deny Diego Simeone's side all three points.
Data Debrief: Sorloth misfiring
Sorloth enjoyed a brilliant campaign with Villarreal last season, but the Norway international has so far struggled to replicate that form for Atletico.
In fact, he has now had his longest run of shots in LaLiga without finding the net (six), with four of those coming in this contest.
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Newcastle United (3-4 on pens): Sangare, Awoniyi misses see visitors through
Newcastle United defeated Nottingham Forest 4-3 on penalties to book their place in the third round of the EFL Cup after a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.
Sean Longstaff struck the winning penalty after Taiwo Awoniyi blazed over for the home side.
Debutant Carlos Miguel had earlier saved from Joelinton to hand Forest the early advantage in the shootout but Ibrahim Sangare struck the crossbar to bring Newcastle back into the shootout.
Joe Willock’s goal, one of the earliest in the competition’s history, had handed Eddie Howe, who handed a start to Sandro Tonali following his return from a long ban, a dream start in normal time.
Forest improved markedly after the break and equalised through Jota Silva’s thumping effort.
The visitors looked the likelier to score towards the end of the tie, with Dan Burn going close from a corner and Harvey Barnes hitting the side netting with a thrashing effort.
Despite Forest holding the advantage in the shootout with Miguel's save, it was later squandered by poor misses from Sangare and especially Awoniyi, leaving Longstaff to knock home the winning penalty for the Magpies.
Data Debrief: Willock's goal tough to beat
Willock's goal 18 seconds into the match is, as would probably be expected, the quickest goal in the EFL Cup this season so far.
Newcastle got it done the hard way after their rapid start, though Howe will no doubt feel his team were the better side, seeing them have more shots (14 to 12) and accumulated over double the amount of expected goals (xG), with 1.92 to Forest's 0.91.
West Ham 1-0 Bournemouth: Bowen bursts Cherries' bubble in EFL Cup
West Ham progressed to the third round of the EFL Cup after a contentious late goal from Jarrod Bowen helped them edge fellow Premier League side Bournemouth 1-0 at London Stadium.
As the game looked to be heading for a penalty shootout, Bowen emerged as West Ham's hero, deflecting in the winner with just two minutes left on the clock, though the ball appeared to strike his arm.
Julen Lopetegui's Hammers were on the backfoot for most of the first half, which ended with Bournemouth winger Dango Ouattara testing goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski with an acrobatic effort.
The visitors went close again as Marcus Tavernier brushed the woodwork with his free-kick eight minutes after the restart, but Bournemouth failed to find the back of the net despite creating plenty of chances and mustering an expected goals (xG) of 1.01 to West Ham's 0.8.
And ultimately, their profligacy was punished when Bowen turned in Mohamed Kudus' 88th-minute strike, and with no VAR, there was no reprieve for the Cherries.
West Ham will return to action when they host reigning champions Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday while the Cherries will be at Goodison Park on the same day to face Everton.
Data Debrief: Bowen blowing bubbles
Bowen has now scored in each of his last three games in the EFL Cup, and even though he did not know much about this goal, he was West Ham's greatest attacking threat, having five attempts in total, and getting three of them on target.
The Hammers have now found the net in each of their last six EFL Cup matches, which is the club's longest such run in the competition.
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