The Norwegian goal machine is obsessed by the Champions League but he may have to move to play in it next seasonEven for a man who is making racing through his footballing to-do list his calling card, it was an abrupt exit. It was “exactly 14 seconds after the full-time whistle”, noted Bild’s Mirko Frank and Jörg Weiler, that Erling Braut Haaland was in the tunnel at Köln’s Rhein-Energie Stadion, tired of the gloomy scenario that his own last-minute equaliser had done little to alleviate.The sense of Borussia Dortmund’s talisman having his patience stretched had been bobbing to the surface for much of the afternoon. Once again he had done the necessary, opening the scoring early on to suggest a...
Peter Bosz’s side looked to be back on track after winning at Gladbach, then lost at home to struggling Arminia BielefeldThe fall is always, it seems, on the way after the slippery part of the road has been negotiated. In a difficult start to 2021 for Bayer Leverkusen, Peter Bosz has tried many things to shake his team out of their funk. This week, the coach prescribed to the old adage of never changing a winning team. He kept the same XI that won, crucially, at Borussia Mönchengladbach last week, the first time that he had named the same starting line-up for successive Bundesliga matches in over a year. Trust appeared to be the watchword of the week.So why, then,...
After six consecutive defeats at Bayern by an aggregate of 26-3, there were mixed feelings after Dortmund’s latest Klassiker lossAs Erling Haaland sat on the bench, right boot and sock off, the reasons for his glum demeanour stretched beyond discomfort in his tended-to right foot that had contributed to curtailing his participation in Der Klassiker. It was about the pain of inevitability as he watched on, knowing his Borussia Dortmund had come so close to frustrating the champions, against the odds, only to stumble and fall with the finishing tape in sight.The young Norwegian had almost foreseen it, speaking pre-game about how it seemed as if every time he scored, Robert Lewandowski – the only centre-forward in the Bundesliga classed...
With Liverpool stuttering, RB Leipzig’s bright young acolyte of the German press must see Tuesday’s Champions League game as a chance to claim another major scalp Football, Brian Clough used to complain, is not a world that ever lets you enjoy your success. There’s always another match, another season, another threat. The past three seasons at Liverpool have been a story of remarkable achievement: a Champions League final, then Champions League success, then the end of the 30-year league title drought. But the fireworks had barely dimmed in the sky over Anfield before Jürgen Klopp found new opponents rising against him. Related: RB Leipzig v Liverpool relocated to Budapest due to German Covid rules Continue reading...
Win at Gladbach followed a botched appointment, a shock cup exit and a player upsetting fans – a regular seven days, thenThere was only one way to celebrate. As they began to bask in a surprise derby victory at Borussia-Park, the plan of Cologne’s players quickly clicked into gear. The players in red scampered to the north-west corner of the ground where the away support would usually be penned in, and Salih Özcan uprooted the corner flag before popping a shirt on it and waving it in the air above his jubilant teammates.The ribbing wasn’t lost on Borussia Mönchengladbach’s players. This has been Marcus Thuram’s victory routine since he arrived from France, normally flying his flag in front of the...