Despite FC Bayern’s 8-1 win, Bayer Leverkusen remains cool. But the best game of these days didn’t take place in the Bundesliga. Everything about the football weekend
Speakers Listen to the article Unbeatable? Florian Wirtz and Bayer Leverkusen © Marius Becker/dpa
Gladbach against Cologne. Lots of goals, derby atmosphere, back and forth, plus wonderful defensive mistakes – there are less entertaining ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. At 3-3, a few new players also wrote their names in the thick history book of the derby: Cologne’s Faride Alidou, who scored two goals, his 19-year-old teammate Damion Downs, who, having just come on as a substitute, ensured the final score and Gladbach’s Robin Hack, who had recently set a new Bundesliga record: as a joker, he scored twice within 184 seconds. If Hack had aimed a little more precisely in stoppage time and circled the ball not just over but into the top right corner of the goal, they would have carried him out of the stadium on their hands. So after the game he simply said: “It pisses me off.” What a difference a few centimeters make.
