Who plays against whom?
Which game shouldn’t you miss?
Leverkusen against Frankfurt. Frankfurt is currently the hottest Bavarian persecutor, in terms of points, only the goal difference prevents the table leadership. Some would say that two games are a somewhat thin analysis base. Others find two game days more than enough to make a judgment.
Leverkusen, for example. They play the home game on Friday evening with a new coach. Kasper Hjulmand, until June 2024 national coach of Denmarkreplaced Erik Ten HAG, the fastest released coach for an indefinite period in a Bundesliga season.
His balance sheet: one point in two games and a lot of bad mood. At least the latter should quickly improve under Hjulmand. He is known for simply being liked. In Denmark he wanted to keep him, despite the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar, a defeat in the EM qualification against San Marino and that in the round of 16 against Germany. And even in Mainz, where he was a coach a good ten years ago and with a point cut of 1.05 per game, one speaks well about him: “Kasper is a top coach,” said Mainz manager Christian Heidel. He just wanted to play something with Mainz that was “not yet possible”. Namely: ball possession football. Is it working with Leverkusen now?
Which game can you miss with a clear conscience?
Bavaria against HSV. Sure, a Bundesliga duel with history. The clubs met 106 times, for the first time in 1965, so in black and white. In the end, however, the story was a very one -sided one: the HSV of the last 17 encounters has not won. But there is several historical defeats. Two 6: 0, two 5: 0, also two 8: 0 and a 9: 2, at which Claudio Pizarro scored four goals. Since then, the picture has been shown in the lexicon in addition to the term Kanter victory.
Who is in the spotlight?
Kasper Hjulmand is not the only Dane to get into the Bundesliga this week. VfL Wolfsburg grabbed Christian Eriksen and thus increased the Danish account in his own club to six. Eriksen was available at Manchester United without a club after his end of the contract and therefore still after the transfer. Sometimes a door opens when a window closes.
With more than 140 national team games and a total of twelve years of experience in Europe’s top leagues, Eriksen, alongside captain Max Arnold, is to give the team important impulses as second, pardon. Not to forget that Eriksen also had the most blatant, but certainly the most emotional comeback in football. At the European Championship 2021, he suffered a cardiac arrest during the game against Finland, was implanted a defibrillator for a few days later, fought back and was already on the field with the national team at the 2022 World Cup. Without a question, the Dane serves as a model. At the weekend he can demonstrate this directly in the game against the newly aged promoters from 1. FC Köln.
