Christian Pulisic and Mario Götze excelled in a ruthless, full-throttle victory at Wolfsburg which made mincemeat of the predictions after a summer of turmoilEverybody loves a shock result on the opening day of the season. What was so unusual as the Bundesliga got back to business was that Borussia Dortmund’s comprehensive victory at Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon – last term’s third-placed finishers winning at the team that ended third-bottom, having to win the dreaded relegation-promotion play-off to save themselves – felt as if it was one of them.Given that this summer was supposed to tidy up some loose ends at Westfalen, it’s been far from a smooth ride for Dortmund and their fans over the last two-and-a-bit months. After the...
‘Lucky Luca’ Waldschmidt popped up with a late winner to sink Wolfsburg and spark wild scenes in Hamburg, as HSV avoided the relegation play-off“No, HSV haven’t won the championship,” said the voiceover on ZDF’s Das Aktuelle Sportstudio as they rolled footage of jubilant Hamburg SV supporters streaming on to the Volksparkstadion pitch. “They’ve stayed up.” There may be widespread incredulity around Germany as to just what constitutes success for the 1983 European Cup winners these days, but very few among the 57,000 sell-out crowd on Saturday cared about that. It had been the latest improbable moment in what has become an improbable role that HSV play in the Bundesliga. The little-used Luca Waldschmidt had come on as substitute in the...
Die Werkself secured their Bundesliga future with a derby draw against Köln, but coach Tayfun Korkut is already on his way … and key players could followIn a Bundesliga season full of surprises, this was not one of them. Bayer Leverkusen, as has become habitual in recent weeks, did just enough to avoid the doomsday scenario and in this case, enough to take a crucial point in Saturday’s derby with Köln. They remain only three points above the relegation play-off spot but with current occupants Hamburg and next-worst Wolfsburg playing each other on the final day, Die Werkself will again be a top-flight club next season.It is quite surreal that having to state that has become necessary but if Leverkusen’s...
RB Leipzig will join Red Bull Salzburg in next season’s Champions League, leaving the drinks company’s CEO Dietrich Mateschitz with a big problemIn any professional sport, what could be more necessary than a rule preventing one person or organisation from owning two teams? The potential conflicts of interest are obvious. One team could be used to help the other by, for instance, rolling over when they met at a crucial point in the battle for a championship, or by obstructing a third party in order to favour a stablemate.Formula One used to have a rule like that, but it was a distant memory by the time Dietrich Mateschitz came along. The man who bought the recipe for a caffeine-based drink...
The players celebrated in front of their supporters, who had faced a raft of protest banners, one proclaiming their team to be the ‘gravediggers of football’Even before it all kicked off in Berlin, RB Leipzig were already in the mood. In the dressing room at the Olympiastadion on Saturday afternoon, the coach Ralph Hasenhüttl played his squad a video compilation of their season’s highlights, “with the Champions League anthem at the end” as outro music, as the midfielder Diego Demme later told journalists.It clearly had the desired effect. Leipzig simply overpowered the European hopefuls Hertha Berlin in a performance that was so finely honed that it was almost a caricature of their best qualities. They pressed Pal Dardai’s side like...