There has been plenty of entertainment but it has been an unusual and not always satisfying season in GermanyThe clock, since you asked, kept on ticking. As the curtain fell on Hamburger SV’s unbroken presence in top flight since the Bundesliga’s formation in 1963, it was alone in maintaining steady hands (give or take it being digital). With the home side’s winning position futile, as Wolfsburg completed an eventually emphatic victory over Köln 170km to the south, any façade of holding it together began to crack.Pyrotechnics rained down from the ultras in the Nordtribüne and a heavy police presence took over the pitch in lines, with horses and dogs for company. Some of those waiting to see if the famous...
A 2-1 home victory against Mönchengladbach was in vain for the Bundesliga’s only ever-present club thanks to Wolfsburg’s win, and fireworks and flares rained down at the endThe city of Hamburg has seen significant regeneration in the past decade. In an effort to rid the city of its faintly sleazy reputation, as home of the Reeperbahn and the stag do delights it contains, a whole new district – HafenCity – was established with plans for modern shops, homes and entertainment venues. The most prominent of the latter was the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, an extraordinary structure that cost €789m, more than three times its initial budget.But as new buildings rise around town, the solid old pillars of their football club crumble....
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...
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...
The passion from both sets of fans remains undimmed, but the question is whether the teams will get away with underachieving again this seasonEven by the standards of local tussles and their particular intensity, it wasn’t much of a spectacle. Pundit Lothar Matthäus told the Sky audience that Saturday’s 107th top-flight Nordderby between Hamburg and Werder Bremen “didn’t deserve a sold-out stadium” – nearly 55,000 were there – but what did anybody expect? These two grand old clubs have been on the train leaving Worried, headed for Desperate, for a while and after this fractious encounter, neither look like taking a diversion soon.For HSV, who had a muted celebration of the club’s 130th birthday on Friday, it was tougher to...