When the Leverkusen professionals stepped in front of the visitors’ block to celebrate after the final whistle, various airplanes flashed across the scoreboard in an advertisement. The Rhenish high-flyers didn’t need to take off in order to complete the mandatory task for South Hesse with a 2-0 away win. As coach Xavi Alonso called it, a “serious performance” was enough. In order to maintain the two-point lead over FC Bayern at the top of the table.
In order to limit the effort required to achieve, achieve and then manage the success up until the second goal in the 52nd minute. To get you going for the following home game week, which can be crucial in turning this so far splendid season into a fantastic one: This Tuesday there will be the DFB Cup match against VfB Stuttgart (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker). DFB Cup, on ARD and on Sky) for a place in the semi-finals and on Saturday there will be a direct duel against Bayern (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) in the fight for their German championship with the Munich people. Granit Xhaka did not mention Bayern by name, but only used the formula: “the big game” as a synonym.
The central midfielder will be able to contribute to this. There had been speculation that Alonso would not use his thinker and driver in the duel between the first and the last in order to avoid a suspension due to a possible fifth yellow card. But the Swiss played 89 minutes at the Böllenfalltor, including the risk of not timing a duel correctly against an initially physical newcomer.
Key point
But the 31-year-old model professional no longer has much in common with the player of old, who could boil over emotionally. “With the help of the team, many duels were won that I wasn’t allowed to get into. That made it brutally easy for me,” said Xhaka, referring to the functioning collective in his favor. Nevertheless, he was the linchpin of the Leverkusen game. If Xhaka was the game manager and Florian Wirtz was the game accelerator in front of 17,800 spectators, the Darmstadt team lacked the antidote.
“We solved it really well once again,” said Xhaka. In the main role was a teammate who was in Bayer’s starting eleven in league play for the first time: Nathan Tella. The winger was only successful with his header (22nd minute) without having to lift his 1.73 meter height into the air. His second direct hit (52nd), which hit the corner at 110 kilometers per hour, calmed the game and the Darmstadt fans because at that moment they realized the hopelessness of inflicting their first defeat on the Rhinelanders in their 29th competitive game.
Only four teams in the league have managed to stay unbeaten in 20 Bundesliga games right from the start. The Darmstadt team, on the other hand, has to be careful that they don’t become one of the few ensembles that don’t win 20 games in a row. The South Hesse winless speedometer currently stands at 13. “We lost to the new German champions,” coach Torsten Lieberknecht began a sentence in the press conference, before pausing and adding: “I wish it so much for them.”
Wirtz probably also wanted to win a special award early in the season. When the news arrived that his goal in October, when the national player fooled the entire Freiburg defense with a dribbling dance, had been voted “Goal of the Year,” cheers erupted in the belly of the Böllenfalltor Stadium.
Marcus Erberich, Christopher Meltzer and Daniel Theweleit Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 20 Daniel Theweleit, Bochum Published/Updated: Christopher Meltzer, Munich Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4
Shortly after work, Wirtz was ennobled as a “genius” by Coach Alonso. Bayer signing Borja Iglesias, on the other hand, remained in search of a bond on his debut. The Spaniard was mostly just there during his 90-minute appearance, but rarely in the middle of it. But what was not particularly noticeable in a team that after 20 match days has already collected two more points (52) than in the entire previous season.
