Dynamo Kiev against FC Bayern – in 1999 a duel on equal terms, with an outstanding Andrij Shevchenko (r.)
Foto: imago images/camera4
What does Franz Beckenbauer actually do? The man who seemed to be present in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg at the same time in the fairy tale summer of 2006 – always on the go with his helicopter, so that he really doesn’t miss anything or anyone and nobody misses him. It is also known that the summer fairy tale did not have a happy ending for the German football emperor. Also because of this and because of his health, there was hardly anything to be heard from Beckenbauer. Most recently there was a greeting to say goodbye to Joachim Löw, but he probably didn’t write a word himself. Beckenbauer has not commented on his FC Bayern for a long time. The time would be ripe for an imperial power word, about Kimmich, Corona, salary cuts and so on.
After the 1: 2 on Friday evening at FC Augsburg and the ongoing unrest around professionals unwilling to vaccinate, the Munich team travel somewhat disheveled to the next performance in the European football circus in Kiev. In the huge Olympic Stadium, Dynamo in the penultimate game of preliminary group E in the Champions League is no longer about anything, at least not for Bayern. After four wins they are already safely qualified for the round of 16, even the group victory is difficult to take away from them.
The people of Munich have already seen guest performances of much greater importance in Kiev. For example in April 1999. And that brings us back to Franz Beckenbauer and his once feared incendiary speeches. Seldom has the emperor scolded his followers as he did after that first leg in the semi-finals of the Champions League in the Kiev Olympic Stadium. The club president at the time, Beckenbauer, raved deep in the night like a school team. He stood at the baggage carousel at Munich Airport and gave a devastating lecture on the international competitiveness of the German record champions.
Later he raved a little. Not from Bayern’s late comeback, a 3: 3 last minute. But from the Ukrainians. Dynamo Kiev had demonstrated the Munich team for a good hour. 75,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium were amazed how a 22-year-old boy made the Bavarian men look ridiculous with his feint and sprints. The future world star Andrij Shevchenko scored two goals, with which the Munich team were still well served, it could have been four or five. In the meantime Dynamo led 2-0 and 15 minutes before the end 3-1. At that moment, the final in Barcelona was far away, and not just geographically.
In the end, FC Bayern benefited from the overview of their playmaker Stefan Effenberg, who dragged himself across the pitch with a fever and circled a free kick to point the way into the Kiev goal. The angular striker Carsten Jancker then somehow muddled the ball in the final minute to equalize over the goal line, which led the eternal libero Lothar Matthäus to the rather idiosyncratic analysis that Bayern were the significantly better team. Franz Beckenbauer gave the answer late at night at the baggage carousel at Munich Airport.
Two weeks later, all anger was forgotten. Mario Basler shot the Munich team to a 1-0 win in the second leg and thus to the final in Barcelona. There Bayern lost an even more memorable game to Manchester United, but that’s another story from the European football circuit.
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