Without a win since 17 January, Tasmania Berlin’s infamous run set in 1966 is now perilously close for Die KönigsblauenNever mind needing Christmas to absorb everything that’s happened to Schalke in 2020; we might need the holidays just to make sense of everything that’s happened in the space of the last week. Eight days ago, Manuel Baum’s team were within seconds of lifting a gargantuan weight from their shoulders by way of a first Bundesliga win of the season, at Augsburg.Since then we’ve had Marco Richter’s 93rd-minute equaliser that put an end to those hopes, a comprehensive home defeat to Freiburg which was more in keeping with their season so far, the sacking of Baum – the second head coach...
The 5-1 humiliation by Stuttgart was the end for Favre and Terzic’s job is to lift the mood and lay the table for a successor“We have to analyse this game.” It was two-and-a-half hours after full-time that the Borussia Dortmund chief executive officer, Hans-Joachim Watzke, finally emerged to briefly address waiting journalists. Watzke emphasised that his late exit from Westfalen was a legacy of staying to watch Bayern Munich’s evening game at Union Berlin rather than, he implied, anything weightier. It needed saying because there was (and is) much to discuss at BVB, and those journalists were hanging around for a reason.It had been more than just a chastening afternoon chasing Stuttgart shadows, and it proved to be Lucien Favre’s...
Leipzig are moving gently towards making inroads into the current hegemony as Borussia Dortmund fail to step upThere has, for some time, been a deal of irritation in parts of Germany’s football-following community over the international marketing of Bayern Munich’s clashes with Borussia Dortmund as Der Klassiker. The epithet can’t truly pretend to be equivalent to its Spanish – or even French – counterpart, being more a way of framing Bayern versus current next best than reference to some historical struggle.That Dortmund have grown into their role in the would-be rivalry is a post-2013 Champions League construct, a natural fit with BVB’s own global appeal and their consistent pitching up just shy of throwing distance from Bayern’s windows. What repercussions...
Two almost identical goals by Ellyes Skhiri and a last-minute blunder by Haaland ended a 267-day wait for a Bundesliga winThe moments of tension tugged more frequently at Kölsch hearts as the afternoon went on, as the prize got closer and the stakes were raised. Yet Markus Gisdol stood there impassively, as watchful and inscrutable as Professor Yaffle, the woodpecker bookend in Bagpuss. When the final whistle went, the facade melted like an ice sculpture in the Sahara. Gisdol celebrated wildly, as his players did all over the Westfalen pitch, a mixture of relief and disbelief. The coach grabbed his assistant, Frank Kaspari, for a bear hug, then embraced Kingsley Ehizibue as he made it on to the field, with...
Florian Kohfeldt’s team might have beaten Bayern. They also might have lost but settled for their now habitual 1-1 scoreline Werder Bremen arrived in Munich with the possibility of setting a peculiar record. Having drawn 1-1 in their last four Bundesliga meetings, they had equalled a 40-year-old run by Bayer Leverkusen and had, in theory at least, the opportunity to supplant Die Werkself in the most niche of trivia categories. With Bayern to face, nobody thought it would actually happen, of course. Related: Fifa bans head of African football for five years after misappropriation of funds Related: European roundup: Haaland scores four in second half to lift Borussia Dortmund Hertha Berlin 2-5 Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 RB Leipzig, Arminia Bielefeld...