Who played against whom and how?
Which game couldn’t you miss?
Mainz against Leverkusen. Kasper Hjulmand returned to his old place of work after ten years. His former and current teams fought a duel as if it was unclear who he was going home with.
The Leverkusen team scored twice, held the lead throughout the game and did everything else to give the top striker Patrik Schick, who suffered a fascia injury, a good feeling as he recovered. But Mainz didn’t let up. The fact that they hadn’t won at home for eight games and hadn’t even scored this season was against them Leverkusen little to see.
Former Leverkusen player Nadiem Amiri in particular caused unrest and even made it 2-3 with his penalty. And then it really started: Leverkusen’s Martin Terrier pushed the ball into the goal with his thigh to make it 2:4. Then Armindo Sieb made it 3-4 for Mainz in the 90th minute. Was that still football or ping pong? In any case, the pulse was certainly significantly increased everywhere during the eight minutes of stoppage time. In the end, as expected, Hjulmand went home with Leverkusen. And with three points.
Which game could you have missed with a clear conscience?
Union Berlin against Mönchengladbach. Unless you like watching someone who is down get kicked even further. Gladbach has been waiting for a Bundesliga win since March and was behind after just three minutes in Berlin on Friday. Even some Union fans couldn’t look at it – the choreography in the stadium wasn’t cleared up quickly enough. For the second goal in the 26th minute, the view was clear of Doekhi, who scored after striker Ilyas Ansah shot off the post.
Gladbach fought back, but only temporarily. In the end it was 3-1 and a tired looking Eugen Polanski. “Intensity, high balls, standard situations, we do extremely poorly,” he said. And then followed up himself: “We are not clever enough, not consistent enough in defending or in creating scoring chances.” Ouch.
Who was in the spotlight?
Vincenzo Grifo. Against Frankfurt in the 87th minute, he flirtatiously flicked a free kick past the two-man wall into the goal to make the final score 2-2. “You could set the clock for him,” commented Grifo’s ex-teammate Nils Petersen. And revealed that Grifo’s other ex-colleague, Ritsu Doan, also suspected what was about to happen. He is said to have warned about a direct free kick, but only to the Frankfurt bench because he had been substituted shortly beforehand. That’s why the Eintracht goalkeeper Kauã Santos took the decisive step too far to the right and thus opened the corner for Grifo. He scored his seventeenth direct free kick goal for Freiburg. By cheering, he revealed that he was going to be a father again.
The goal was also a message to his coach Julian Schuster, who exceptionally brought Grifo off the bench. That annoyed him, Grifo admitted after the game. He wanted to prove that he deserved his place in the starting lineup. If Schuster didn’t see more of a joker quality there.
