Winger feels public fury after his first-minute free fall led to a penalty which he converted to put the Bundesliga’s top team ahead against SchalkeThrough on goal straight after kick-off, Timo Werner scuffed his shot, then instinctively took his second chance – albeit in less style. He arched his back, let out a cry and threw himself to the ground, creating the impression that the Schalke 04 keeper Ralf Fährmann, who had actually done well to pull out of the challenge, had brought him down. The referee Sebastian Dankert fell for the phantom foul and awarded a penalty. The irate Fährmann was booked. Werner himself stepped up to slot home the spot kick coolly to put RB Leipzig 1-0 ahead....
Once they were northern powerhouses but the shambolic defending in the 2-2 draw highlghted just how far the two sides have fallen“Drobo, Drobo,” the khal – sorry, the call – went from the stands. Hamburg fans took care to acknowledge a former favourite, goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny, on his return to the Volksparkstadion in the green and white of Werder Bremen. Before crossing the Nord-Derby divide this summer, the 37-year-old had spent the previous six years with die Rothosen, mostly left to his own devices by an array of bumbling defenders, forced to pick hundreds of balls out of his net with the dignified desolation of a man scouring piles of discarded betting slips for a forgotten winner.On Saturday, though, Drobny...
Germany’s league leaders are by no means the first nouveau riche arrivistes to ostentatiously buy their way to the top, but don’t dismiss them out of handThis being their maiden season in the German top flight, it is nigh on impossible to profile RB Leipzig without focusing on their controversial journey to the Bundesliga summit. Previously a fifth-tier team from the east German region of Saxony called SSV Markranstädt, the club’s licence was bought in 2009 by the Austrian energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, who promptly rebranded their acquisition by changing their name, crest and kit before beginning their quick ascent through the divisions.Despite being unable to call themselves Red Bull Leipzig due to DFB regulations (the RB “officially” stands...
The podders look back on all the midweek European action. Also up for discussion: Swansea’s six-pointer with Crystal Palace; Bayern’s second defeat in a week; and another new manager at CharltonSubscribe and review: iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast & Stitcher.On today’s Football Weekly Extra, AC Jimbo is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Ashdown and international man of mystery Philippe Auclair to look back on a stonking midweek of European action. Continue reading...
Borussia Dortmund’s victory over Carlo Ancelotti’s side has left the Bundesliga champions in a spot of bother at Säbener Strasse“Willpower”, “passion”, “aggressiveness”, “fight”. The message was a familiar one in Dortmund ahead of the match, but the messenger wasn’t. Thomas Tuchel, the 43-year-old head boy of the so-called “laptop coaches” in German, young, cerebral, strategy-obsessed managers who prefer a cold, hard look at the numbers to heated rhetoric, had ventured deep into Jürgen Klopp territory on Friday, proclaiming the need to harness the emotional power of the occasion and to add a crucial “third level” to go with tactics and technique. “That will be the basis of beating Bayern,” Tuchel confidently predicted. And he was right. Borussia Dortmund, by their...