Borussia suffers in Leverkusen: a game turns into a Gladbach horror show

Contrasting programs in football also have their appeal.

When some are bursting with enthusiasm and the others have forgotten everything that distinguished them a week ago, it can turn into a duel that amazes the winners and amazes the losers.

A supposedly equal top match between two mostly equal rivals turned into a fascinating, glowing demonstration of the abundance of opportunities at Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday evening and a horror show the likes of which Borussia Mönchengladbach has not seen for a long time. The extremely different emotional worlds experienced by the Rhenish rivals were characterized by two statements from the camp of the Werkself, who won 4-0, and from the ranks of the deeply hit eleven from the Lower Rhine.

Lukas Hradecky, the new Bayer 04 captain, expressed his exhilaration in the emotionally tinged sentence: “I fell in love with football all over again.” On the other hand, Max Eberl, the sports director of Borussia, commented on Gladbach's second appearance in this Bundesliga season after respectable 1: 1 against champions FC Bayern Munich from the bottom of his heart: “There are days when you would have loved to stay at home.

Everything went wrong today that can go wrong. "

Stindl misses a penalty

Probably true! The mishap in the BayArena began after 132 seconds, when the new Leverkusen left-back Bakker simply risked an ambush shot that hit the right post, from there against the ankle of goalkeeper Sommer and from there back into the Gladbacher Tor. The Mönchengladbach day under the motto of bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns began with a billiards own goal and ended with Amiri’s shot, which Sommer steered to 4-0 into his own net (87th minute).

In between, the Czech center forward Schick, who scored five goals for his home country at the European Championships in June and July, demonstrated his exquisite shooting technique when he scored the 2-0 with a flick (8th). Even then, the game seemed as good as over for the defenseless against the Leverkusen power Mönchengladbach, who wasted a great opportunity to turn the game shortly before the break.

Captain Stindl, in the past a sure penalty taker, failed after Bakker's rude foul on Lainer hobbling off the field with a broken ankle, because Hradecky was on the quivive and parried the half-hearted low shot. Diaby, the liveliest of all Leverkusen sprinters, then scored the 3-0 (55th) with the kind help of Gladbacher Bensebaini, who directed the shot into his own goal, before the substitute Amiri scored the last goal of a colorful one in the summer, the weakest day in a long time Leverkusen evenings took advantage.

It was up to Gerardo Seoane, the new Swiss coach of the Bayer ensemble, who lived out his joy in football, to package the added value of this for him and above all for the majority of the 15,505 spectators in the BayArena, which was sold out under Corona conditions, in words of praise and demand: " We were very, very catchy and present right from the start, and we were also very efficient, ”is how he described the compelling dramaturgy of the Leverkusen appearance. “The game can be used as a benchmark because the team showed great solidarity. I felt a great energy. "

Which immediately carried over to the ranks where something like a natural enthusiasm could be felt without the Ultras living in their own rituals, who have not yet returned to the Bundesliga arenas with full team strength.

Seldom have the Leverkusen football artists, who have always been highly talented in the past, strived for success together with such passion as they did on Saturday.

On the other hand, coach Adi Hütter, like his colleague Seoane, a master coach of Young Boys Bern before switching to the Bundesliga, saw the second face of his team, which did not have the strength after the promising overture against Bayern, to the vortex of unfortunate events to put in the way.

But that was understandable somewhere, since the Gladbacher freight was not only due to the strange goals conceded, but also due to injuries like Lainer's, who will be missing for a long time, as the knee injuries of the two French attackers Thuram and Pléa became more and more severe. Especially Bakker's attack on Lainer angered Eberl, who rightly spoke of a "bad foul" that referee Aytekin punished too mildly with the yellow card. “The injuries,” concluded Hütter, “are very uncomfortable because they are possibly more severe. Then such a day comes out that is to be forgotten. "If it were that easy!