Bayer Leverkusen in particular benefits from the draw in the Bundesliga between SC Freiburg and Bayern Munich. The “Werkself” can escape the record champions to ten points.
FC Bayern patron Uli Hoeneß is currently very reserved. Understandable, because Max Eberl, the man who he has long trusted to lead “his” club as successfully as he had for decades, has now been installed as the Munich team’s sports director. Hoeneß’s success concept also included sending a few verbal barbs to the competition every now and then. But one of them could fall on his feet these days.
24th matchday arrow right
Hoeneß’ binocular saying gets a new spin
“We have to make sure that next year we start to complain again when the others in the table look at us with binoculars,” said the 72-year-old before the 2007/08 season. A saying that became famous because, especially in retrospect, there was a lot of truth in it. Bayern recently became German champions eleven times in a row, eight of them well before the last matchday with a double-digit points lead – but the Munich team now seems to need binoculars for the rest of the season.
After the 2-2 draw at SC Freiburg, Thomas Tuchel’s team failed to seriously reduce Bayer Leverkusen’s big lead. The league leaders therefore have a cushion of seven points over the record champions. This is their 24th game of the season. The “Werkelf” win this on Sunday (March 3rd, 2024) at 1. FC Cologne and have the changing of the guard at the top of the Bundesliga with the cracking of the Ten point mark reached a new sphere.
Leverkusen is hardly without competition
Leverkusen scores like Bayern, but Bayern themselves play like their pursuers from previous years. Tuchel’s team has only won one win in the last five games, while Xabi Alonso’s team has won five times in a row and has not lost a competitive game all season. It’s hard to believe that there’s anything left to worry about when it comes to the question of masters in this constellation. Leverkusen scores too consistently for that – and Bayern don’t give the impression that they can take advantage of a possible Bayer stumble.
Hoeneß “heir” Eberl was in the stadium in Freiburg for the first time as Bayern boss. It was a premiere with an unfortunate outcome. He said he had to “let that sink in for me first.” The 50-year-old was once again reminded of how much work lies ahead of him.
Tuchel with (too) simple explanation
Once again it was not a performance like the record champions themselves claim. Freiburg were better in the first 30 minutes, deservedly led and were always in the game afterwards despite the increased pressure from their opponents. Munich was extremely dependent on individual actions from Jamal Musiala. After the dream goalscorer was substituted by Tuchel to make it 2-1, the equalizer fell and accordingly little happened in the final phase without the national player.
“It was undisciplined in the positions, it was sometimes hara-kiri. We had phases where our central defender ran behind the full-back. We did things that we had never trained before, we had never talked about,” Tuchel complained. A clear criticism of his players. Overall, he made it very easy for himself when explaining the result: “The fact that we don’t win is due to a lucky goal after a set piece.” Lucas Höler scored after a long throw-in.
Freiburg takes advantage of Bayern’s weakness
The striker rewarded a courageous Freiburg performance. The sports club also benefited from having Bayern as an opponent in a phase in which they are more beatable than usual. “The team played a good game, very passionately, also played a good game with the ball and honestly earned and earned the point,” said coach Christian Streich.
In the days when the Bundesliga competitors needed binoculars to make eye contact with Bayern, who were racing towards the top, such a performance would probably not have been enough. Munich was too strong for its opponents. But this status is a thing of the past, at least for this season. The dominator of the Bundesliga is now Leverkusen, and Bayern is just the pursuer peering far behind with binoculars.
