Double winner Bayer Leverkusen welcomes runner-up VfB Stuttgart – but the two top teams from last season are still looking for their form. And yet both coaches are optimistic that things will get right again in the direct duel.
It was THE spectacle of last season: four exchanges of blows at eye level, merciless offensive football and repeated drama in the last minute. “I was exhausted after every game,” said Xabi Alonso before the reunion between champions Bayer Leverkusen and runners-up VfB Stuttgart. But the signs have changed since then – instead of the next fabulous season, both teams have to deliver results after a mixed start to the season.
Record champions Bayern Munich are once again undefeated at the top of the table after their weak year. VfB, on the other hand, is only in eighth place after eight match days – and Bayer has also revealed unusual weaknesses in defense and is in danger of losing sight of its mission to defend its title early on.
“Why should things be different now?”
Alonso emphasized that he was “of course not satisfied” before the “intense” floodlight clash on Friday (8.30 p.m./DAZN and in the live ticker at ntv.de). The gap between Bayern and RB Leipzig is already five points, and against VfB of all teams, the championship blues should finally disappear.
But the task could hardly be harder: The Swabians were the only team that had Leverkusen on the verge of defeat several times in the previous season and, according to Alonso, play with the “same idea” and “same attitude” as the Werkself. There were two draws in the league (1:1, 2:2), in the wild cup quarter-finals, Bayer’s Jonathan Tah only scored the 3-2 winning goal in the 90th minute, and the Supercup in mid-August also had everything: expulsion, Pack formations, penalty shootout (4:3 for Leverkusen).
“There were emotions in there that are certainly still in your memory,” recalled Hoeneß: “A lot of intensity, fast play, heated tempers: That’s what the games always stood for. Why should things be different now?”
“That really upsets me”
Maybe because there is currently no trace of Bayer’s self-image, offensive greed and ultimate consistency in defense compared to the championship season, with the exception of the 3-0 win in the cup during the week against second division team SV Elversberg. “If you get 15 goals after eight matchdays, then it’s not enough to be at the top,” leader Granit Xhaka recently raged after the 2-2 draw in Bremen, where Werder’s equalizer came in stoppage time. “That really upsets me.”
“Laterkusen” is now being fought with its own weapons, and Stuttgart has already conceded 16 goals. But the table plays “no role at all,” said Hoeneß, who, according to a report by “Kicker” in Leverkusen, has long been considered a “wish solution” for the time after Alonso. Rather, the three wins in a row are intended to make things “easier”. Bayer also wants that back. “We know how intense it will be. It’s a big game,” said Alonso. Maybe a spectacle again.
