Ralph Hasenhüttl has belief in the match-winning debutant who ‘only brought one pair of boots with him from England’It could have been all so different for Diego Forlán. So he thought, at least. Some years back he famously told an interviewer the tale of his last match for Manchester United, against Chelsea in 2004. Sir Alex Ferguson told him to wear boots with soft-ground studs but, feeling more comfortable in moulded, low studs, he ignored his boss. Late on, Forlán lost his footing in front of goal and missed a chance and was never picked again. After RB Leipzig’s late win at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, it appears that Fussballgott is very much on the side of Ademola Lookman. Three...
Eintracht went second in the Bundesliga for 19 hours after the league’s hardest-working team triumphed againIt was short, but oh so sweet. For 19 hours following their 2-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday, Eintracht Frankfurt were second in the Bundesliga, with just Bayern Munich ahead of them. It wouldn’t last, of course, with Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke and the other riders in a sub-champion field still to play, but Die Adler were determined to make the most of their “one-night stand”, as sporting director Fredi Bobic put it after.“I said before the game,” Bobic continued, “that if we win, we have to take a picture and frame it.” Maybe, in a season where no credible challenger to Bayern has emerged...
Peter Bosz’s side let slip a 2-0 lead at Frankfurt as injuries and suspensions hit the backline in a Bundesliga season that is opening up into a three-way fightAfter Borussia Dortmund threw away a two-goal lead at Eintracht Frankfurt and were forced to settle for a draw, the journey home proved pretty memorable, too. With the motorway closed, and the team coach and fans alike stuck in traffic, near the town of Haiger, two dozen or so supporters took it on themselves to serenade the stationary team bus with an impromptu rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone. Gänsehaut – goose bumps, Dortmund said. Following Die Schwarzgelben is rarely dull.There was the entertaining heavy metal football under Jürgen Klopp, they scored...
A 5-0 thrashing at Dortmund could have been worse, even with a dubious VAR decision, and there are already fears of a situation spinning out of controlJörg Schmadtke rushed out to the Sky truck in the TV compound to pore over every possible angle – and to check his eyes weren’t deceiving him. By that point, the Köln sporting director had already been on the Signal Iduna Park pitch, shoulder to shoulder with the coach, Peter Stöger, protesting to the referee, Patrick Ittrich, over the award by VAR of Borussia Dortmund’s second goal. Before any more fingers start pointing at Effzee about an anarchic end to a chaotic week, we should add that this was a reasonable moment for both...
The former Bayern midfielder has solidified a baffled, lost squad of players with methods so old-school that they’re almost ingenious againHey Bundesliga? Si senõr, the league is on. Ten games into the 2016-17 season, there are the old, familiar, expected faces at both ends of the table – FC Bayern (unbeaten und unconvincing) at the top, Hamburger SV (clueless, rudderless, irreparable) at the bottom – but otherwise, it’s a jolly good mess of smart overachievers, former giants growing in stature, elite sides mired in inconsistency and an array of sporting disasters of varying magnitude. Only six points separate the first seven teams. RB Leipzig, are second behind Bayern on goal difference after another exhilarating win, 3-1 over Mainz. While their...