Patrik Schick was hard to understand because Bielefeld fans shredded his radio interview after the game – the fact that they threw beer mugs at him could not be heard on the radio. The striker from the Czech Republic, who made a significant contribution to Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld with two goals and a template, didn’t seem piqued: “It’s part of football,” said Schick cheerfully into the microphone to disregard the whistle concert, “that’s okay with me, I’m happy about the return of the audience – even if they are against us.”
The background to this was that the 25-year-old Schick had flexed his muscles after his header hit to make it 3-0 in the 57th minute. The biceps tense on both sides is a gesture that he often performs after goals, but it wasn’t a good idea right in front of the Bielefeld fan block on Sunday evening. “I think that’s unfortunate,” reprimanded his coach Gerardo Seoane, albeit in a moderate Swiss tone.
It wasn’t a big deal that Schick was booed on the alpine pastures. A really big thing, however, is that Leverkusen will now receive the league leaders FC Bayern tied for a top game on the Sunday after next as second in the league. “I’m looking forward to it”, Schick called into the microphone before he took shelter in the cabin. He would love to show off his biceps again against Bayern.
After the last top game, Leverkusen went down in the table – and this time?
In Bielefeld, Leverkusen was “mercilessly effective”, at least that’s how Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky felt. The Werkself had been so relentless in scoring goals this season, against Mönchengladbach, in Augsburg and most recently at Celtic Glasgow in the Europa League, Leverkusen had already scored four goals each. Center forward Schick, wing attacker Moussa Diaby and central offensive Florian Wirtz were involved in 16 of the 20 Bundesliga goals this season. They form the heart of the greedy Bayer offensive. Schick, who put together a “double pack” for the first time in the 58th Bundesliga match in Bielefeld, has only one less goal than Erling Haaland from Dortmund and Robert Lewandowski from Munich with six goals this season.
A top game between Leverkusen and FC Bayern wasn’t that long ago, just ten months. Last December, under coach Peter Bosz, Leverkusen was even leader of the table on matchday 12 and received the series champions just before Christmas with one point ahead. Schick gave Bayer an early lead, Lewandowski equalized shortly before the break – and in the third minute of stoppage time he knocked Leverkusen 2-1
After this defeat, Leverkusen went down in the table, at the end of March they parted ways with Bosz, and the season was brought to an end by the junior coach Hannes Wolf, who was on loan from the DFB. The team ended the season in sixth place and got a coach in Seoane in the summer who found access surprisingly quickly. So far only the spectacle (3: 4) against Dortmund has been lost. There were two wins in the Europa League.
The international break comes in handy for coach Seoane
That was what Seoane was most happy about on Sunday evening: that his team had stormed on just three days after the 4-0 win at Celtic. “I have to pay a big compliment to my players for being back immediately three days after Glasgow, so determined and focused,” said Seoane. After only 18 minutes, Diaby brought the victory on the path with the 1-0 on presentation by Schick. Six minutes later, after preliminary work by Wirtz, Schick increased it to 2-0. After Schick had brought the Bielefeld fans to the barricades with the 3-0 and his biceps show, Kerem Demirbay converted a penalty in the second minute of stoppage time to make it 4-0.
Seoane actually thinks it’s good that there is now an international break: “Some get a breather, others a breather,” he says. Leverkusen gives 15 players to national associations. What Seoane doesn’t like: He doesn’t know how his players are treated in the national teams. “Unfortunately we no longer have access to that and we cannot control how much they play.”
Example: Exequiel Palacios. The 22-year-old Argentine has not played for a month and a half due to a torn ankle ligament, but still has to fly to Argentina for the national team and may even be playing there next week. Seoane hopes that they will treat his midfielder there with care – he needs the talented Argentine back safe and sound. At Bayer Leverkusen they still have a lot of plans.
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