In a global city where football doesn’t often take centre stage, it needed someone to seize the moment: enter the Union strikerIt was going to take something to be heard through the cacophony, to guide the way through the fog that sporadically impaired vision of proceedings, and to cut a tension that was quite unusual in the context of Berlin’s football. In a global city where football doesn’t often take centre stage, it needed something or someone to seize the moment. Sebastian Polter was ready.In this first top-flight meeting between Berlin’s two most prominent clubs, Union and Hertha, where nerves crackled and fireworks fizzed, the football had been fractious in the Bundesliga new boys’ atmospheric, old-school home, rebuilt by the...
The questioning of Lucien Favre is only intensifying after a 0-0 draw for BVB against their local rivalsThe cliche about draws between rivals keeping the peace may be habitually overcooked – the mere sight of a blue Schalke jersey at Dortmund Hauptbahnhof after Saturday’s game caused some consternation, according to local media – but a similar view over the context of the stalemate might occasionally be reached, as was the case here. “After the turf derby between FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund,” wrote Der Westen’s Daniel Sobolewski, “fans from both camps were in agreement. The 0-0 was a lucky one for BVB, and was not enough for S04.”Both sets of supporters, then, ended the afternoon with empty stomachs, but...
• Maturing striker stars in redemptive win against Leverkusen• André Silva and Bas Dost benefit from colleague’s fine formJust deal with the first half. That may, and arguably should, have been Eintracht Frankfurt’s plan going into Friday night. The last time they’d played Leverkusen, they had begun with hope and ended humiliated. Eintracht’s trip to BayArena was set between the two legs of their Europa League semi-final with Chelsea, the third-from-last Bundesliga game of the season and with the team having the chance of a Champions League place in their own hands.It was, ultimately, the moment in which it became abundantly clear that Eintracht’s tank had pretty much run dry. After 36 minutes in Leverkusen they were 6-1 down, shell-shocked...
Hoffenheim ending a major run of invincibility underlined how the perception of Bayern has changed under Niko KovacThis Sunday was the Bayern Munich squad’s traditional drop-in to Oktoberfest. It’s an iconic scene with the players and their families, who dress up in traditional Bavarian outfits of lederhosen and toast the moment. The atmosphere is often heady. On one occasion, the story goes, Pep Guardiola spontaneously decided that he and his charges should commandeer a private jet to fly off and watch Juventus take on Roma in a Serie A top-of-the-table clash in Turin.This time, the mood was slightly different. Manuel Neuer “could be happy”, wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Lisa Sonnabend. “He can have a drink on Sunday at the Oktoberfest, because...
Bundesliga title pretenders were battered by the champions but stole a draw and know now how much they must improveIt had promised so much, and yet had been such hard going. “It was,” said Leipzig’s coach, Julian Nagelsmann, “like a run in the forest without much football” for his team. For all the pre-match excitement that they might be facing Bayern Munich at the right time, catching them before they were settled into their season stride, much of this felt ominously familiar for those hoping for a meaningful Bundesliga title race again. The leaders versus the champions looked, for a large chunk of early Saturday evening, like the also-rans against the lords of the manor.This was no evening for anybody...