Dhe achieved the feat of the year even before the start of the new Bundesliga season. At the European Football Championship in June and July, the gamer Patrik Schick put a brilliant idea into practice with the sensitivity of a clever striker. The 25-year-old from Prague saw from the corner of his eye how the unsuspecting Scottish goalkeeper Marshall stood a few meters in front of his gate and suspected no harm. Schick, on the other hand, thought at that moment: Try a lifter.
The center forward pushed the ball with his left foot on a trajectory that surprised the goalkeeper, who reacted too late to the danger and only got hold of the ball when it was already in the net. It was the goal of the tournament, yes, of the year, that the Bayer 04 Leverkusen attacker scored on June 14th in Glasgow for the 2-0 victory of his team with all the cunning that it seems innocent about at first glance Beau of 1.91 meters in length is also able on occasion.
At the European Championships he scored a total of five times – as often as the notorious Portuguese shooting king Cristiano Ronaldo, who was awarded the European Football Union’s Golden Shoe because, unlike Schick, he also had an assist in his portfolio. The Czech, trained at Sparta Prague, offered the full range of possibilities: hits with left and right as well as with the head and a penalty goal.
Patrik Schick: “It all fits”
Schick, in the previous Bundesliga season with his nine Bundesliga goals and two assists, also because of a number of injuries and his long open duel with his Argentinian colleague Lucas Alario, was more of a hidden champion in the Rhenish squad, made under the new Leverkusen coach Gerardo Seoane just continued as he left off in the quarterfinals of the EM.
Not only did he reliably deliver as number three on the list of goalscorers with six goals and two assists so far, he also inspired the Werkself’s already rapid attacking game with his running, anticipatory and enforcement qualities. When asked whether the Bundesliga is currently experiencing the best Patrik Schick it has ever seen, he replied to the FAZ: “You can see it that way. I’m feeling very well right now. Everything is alright.”
Battle for the top scorer cannon
A statement that indicates that Schick will not shy away from world footballer Robert Lewandowski in the top game at home on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and at DAZN). The Pole, who has been without a goal for four competitive games, has scored seven goals so far this season, like Dortmund center forward Erling Haaland, who is irresistible on good days. In other words: An exciting three-way battle for the top scorer cannon could be developing.
Schick would accept that “if I have my way”, but points out that his Munich colleague “is not only the best striker in the world in my eyes” and that his Norwegian rival from Dortmund has “had an outstanding Bundesliga season so far “. Should the three push each other to peak performance and Schick “in the end scored as many goals as the two of them, that would mean that we did well as a team”.
At the moment everything looks like that, as Seoane knows a team behind them that impresses their opponents with force, speed, artistry and simplicity. Schick, whose European club path led via Sampdoria Genua, AS Roma and RB Leipzig 2020 to Leverkusen, says when asked about the reasons for the current high performance: “It is primarily the team spirit. We found each other as a team. There is a good atmosphere in the cabin. All players benefit from this. “
What the long-time Prague citizen mainly benefits from is the congenial interaction with the young German star Florian Wirtz. The 18-year-old central midfielder, who has so far scored four goals and five assists, has a partner in Schick who plays football as well as he does and is equipped with the sparkling finishing qualities of a classic center forward. The sensitive goalscorer from duty has established himself as the clear number one in the attack center in Leverkusen.
And that in a pleasant working atmosphere, in which he can also speak Czech at times: with the Finnish goalkeeper, captain and joker Lukas Hradecky, who comes from Slovakia. A man who understands chic very well and can, if necessary, encourage them to do even more than they already believe.
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