Game Report: Bundesliga, Fixture 7, Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen 3:0

by Patrick1904

It was clear after 20 minutes that Leverkusen would go another year (22) without winning in Munich: Ribery outdrives Youngster Da Costa on the left wing, low cross to unmarked Müller BAM 1:0 (5 min.); Van Buyten hits a powerful free-kick through Leverkusen’s “wall” BAM 2:0 (19 min.)

Our offensive attempts can be best summarized in Kiessling’s innocent shot on goal 11 minutes into the game. Bayer 04′s midfield was more involved in containing ball controlling Bayern then supporting Kiessling in his attempts towards goal. Luckily the Bavarians geared down after their comfortable lead to save energies for their Champions League game next week and only Robben late in the second half used a counter-attack to establish the 3:0 end result.

A complete tactical analysis can be found here: Bundesligafanatic.com

What did Robin Dutt say after the match? Please fasten your seat-belts!

“The team had big plans for this game. However we received a crushing blow in the initial minutes. Despite this, I need to compliment my players, because they fought well defensively and avoided being slaughtered here today.”

I think it’s time to let other fans speak as you already know my thoughts going into this season.  Here some extracts out of the two major Leverkusen supporter forums which should give you a good idea, how only in a few months everything has been turned upside down:

User Jannes on Bayer04-Forum.com:

“Slowly we are noticing that after Vidal’s and Hyypiä’s exit the squad is just average. Heynckes made public in the press more than a year ago, that the management denied him necessary reinforcements. This made the coach and at the end also Vidal leave. A lot of Bayer fans were just blind to see, including myself,that Jupp wasn’t the bad guy at the end of last season for leaving to Bayern Munich.”

User Viererkette on Werkself.de:

“If not now, a radical change of mind takes place in our entire management, we will be heading for horeful times. How should a team, that tomorrow probably find itself in the last third of the table and without a leader return to the first four places? Ballack is ignored, Vidal sold and for Hyypiä no decent substitute was bought. What kind of management is this? And this is not all, let’s see how the Teldafax story will end (possible return of sponsorship payments due to insolvency).

If we mess up Wednesday’s game, we got a real crisis at our doorsteps. The hard work of the last years is threatened to end up with no returns.

In London our technical gifted players showed that they can eat grass and fight aggressively. Only this kind of football will help us in the next weeks. Otherwise a revival of the season 2002/03 (saved from relegation in last fixture) is likely.

Good night!”

User Maulwurf on Werkself.de:

“Sorry but it seems a lot here have lost the sense of reality! Could be that many thought we would fight the 1st place, just like Dutt promised. But me and many others agreed that with these centre-backs it would a difficult task. We had a bad start with 3 unnecessary losses (Dresden, Mainz and Cologne), however the realistic Champions League spots are still reachable.

From now on we gotta make the points! With a win against Genk, Wolfsburg and Gladbach the situation will be completely different!

User Shady04 on Werkself.de:

It’s time to clean up certain parts of the team, especially Rolfes. It’s not acceptable, that every coach experiences the same problems here with him (criticised Dutt’s tactics on Friday). Heynckes controlled a lot of aspects better, but many fans did not like the way we played.

Dutt has made mistakes, no question. But he is not the problem, it’s the structure and mentality of the team (or parts of it).

User schmidty Werkself.de:

“What can a coach do so wrong, that the team abandons him in such a way today?”

Reply User Ansteff Werkself.de:

“If you have a look at all the out of place declarations in Interviews/press conferences, you can imagine that he behaves similar internally (Castro will only play in defensive midfield, Ballack and Rolfes cannot be on the pitch at the same time…). Together with the tendency of profiling himself (I’m a derby coach), it’s all very similar at the moment to Labbadia in his best times.

I don’t think he is a bad coach. I do believe that he can help us in the long term. The question is whether too much has gone broken in the first weeks and he can still manage to make a unit out of this team and convince the lads of his tactical ideas. It has to happen quickly, before everything turns very negative.

Regarding cleaning up the squad of bad characters, I do not believe that this troupe is difficult to manage. The 4th and 2nd place of the last two years show that they have quality. There is however a difference when directing SC Freiburg or a top team. Heynckes found the way to have success with this squad. Dutt so far not, let’s hope this changes quickly!

Walter Posner04 on Werkself.de:

“The criticism towards coach and players is correct, but at the end the Bayern have achieved what they wanted. They got Heynckes back and consequently made Vidal leave. A functioning team was pulled apart. They can live with the fact that Vidal did not move to Munich, we however not. We still have some great players in the team but the mix is not perfect and the choice of coach seems to have been wrong.”

Line-up: Bayern (top) vs Leverkusen (bottom)

Substitutions Bayern
65 min. Luiz Gustavo for Gomez
78 min. Robben for Kroos
82 min. Alaba for Ribery

Substitutions Leverkusen
65 min. Bellarabi for da Costa
85 min. M. Friedrich for Toprak

Yellow Cards: van Buyten (Bayern); Kießling,Toprak,Reinartz,Sam (all Leverkusen)

Goals:
1:0 T. Müller (5 min.)
2:0 van Buyten (19 min.)
3:0 Robben (90 min.)

Statistics Bayern vs Leverkusen
Posession: 61 % vs 39 %
Shots: 12 vs 4
Fouls: 11 vs 16
Corners: 4 vs 1
Offsides: 5 vs 0
Distance covered (km): 108 vs 114

Videos uploaded by third party with no link to Mundilev.tk. We assume no responsibility for it!

or here>> Videa.hu

Ex-Bayer 04 assistant coach Peter Hermann talking to Rolfes and Kiessling prior to the match

Bayer Fans in Munich

Dutt *uck off, then everything will be good. The first banner of this sort so early in the season. The same group of people probably created the Facebook Page below requesting the dismissal of Robin Dutt

Facebook Page: Robin Dutt Raus.

More photos @ 1904-online.de

Game Report: Bundesliga, Fixture 34, SC Freiburg vs Bayer Leverkusen 0:1

A good first half with a lot of intensity by the Werkself was sufficient to grab 3 points and finish runner-up in the Bundesliga.  This time the club had a reason to celebrate (not like in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002 in which Leverkusen dropped from the top-position) after an overall strong season which meant the return to the Champions League after 6 years.

Balitsch scored the winner with a deflection by Makiadi seconds before half-time.  Derdiyok could have decided it earlier, with a few goal opportunities in the initial half an hour.

After the break Bayer 04 decided to secure the result, only a chance by Rosenthal that hit the cross-bar could have given the last 25 minutes some breathless suspense.

Line-up: Freiburg (bottom) vs Leverkusen (top)

Substitutions Freiburg
54 min. Reisinger for Caligiuri
71 min. Jäger for Putsila
90 min. Yano for Schuster

Substitutions Leverkusen
73 min. Castro for Renato Augusto
88 min. Barnetta for Sam
90. + 1 min. Kießling for Derdiyok

Yellow Cards: Renato Augusto (Leverkusen)

Goals:
0:1 Balitsch (45 min.)

Statistics Freiburg vs Leverkusen
Posession: 50 % vs 50 %
Shots: 8 vs 13
Fouls: 8 vs 21
Corners: 1 vs 9
Offsides: 3 vs 2

Videos uploaded by third party with no link to Mundilev.tk. We assume no responsibility for it!

or here>> rutube.ru

Postgame Celebrations

Around 3.000 Leverkusen Fans in Freiburg

DANKE SAMI HYYPIÄ!

Rudi Völler took Jupp Heynckes by the arm to bring him back to the Fans for a proper celebration of his two years at Bayer 04

Assistant coach Peter Hermann is also leaving to Bayern Munich

More pictures @ 1904-online.de

Game Report: Bundesliga, Fixture 33, Bayer Leverkusen vs Hamburg SV 1:1

Bayer 04 showed nerves and will have to gain at least a point in the last match in Freiburg to keep the second position in case Bayern wins against Stuttgart.

Westermann scored early for Hamburg (2 min.) after René Adler failed to clear a free-kick properly. It was not his only bad intervention in this game and in previous ones, seems like the contract extension talks are making him lose focus.

It took quite a while till the Werkself recovered from this early shock and Bayern’s goal festival which was announced on the scoreboard in the BayArena. Kiessling could have evened the match in the 21st minute but his goal was ruled offside, a centimeter decision!

10 minutes later, Sami Hyypiä had to be substituted due to knee problems (33 min.). A wide sector of the BayArena thought that this substitution was not based on an injury and proceeded to shout “Get lost Heynckes” & “Gipsy Heynckes” as it was Hyypiä’s last home game and the second spot was endangered.

Barnetta had an attempt on goal before half-time but his shot went over the goal of Frank Rost. Both teams went to changing rooms with a loud booing from the crowd in the BayArena. During half-time goalkeeper coach Rüdiger Vollborn approached the fans in the Nordkurve to tell them that Hyypiä had an injury and the team needed their full support during the second half. 

The Werkself improved after the break and found the equalizer in the boots of Stefan Kiessling (54 min.), whose lousy shot fooled Hamburg’s goalkeeper. In the remaining 35 minutes, Bayer searched the winner but was not able to find it. Arturo Vidal had the best chance with a nice volley (81 min), but only hit the post. Hamburg was not innocent at any time and Leverkusen’s defense invited them to a couple of counter-attacks with numeric superiority. The draw was therefore a fair result for both teams.

The management of Bayer 04 is thinking about firing Heynckes before the last game against Freiburg according to the Express Newspaper. The team from Breisgau is also considering the same to avoid a conflict of interest surrounding our future coach Robin Dutt.

I will keep you posted in the social networks on any new developments!

Line-up: Leverkusen (top) vs Hamburg (bottom)

Substitutions Leverkusen
33 min. Derdiyok for Hyypiä
57 min. Ballack for Rolfes
57 min. Sam for Barnetta

Substitutions Hamburg
60 min. Pitroipa for Son
71 min. Ben-Hatira for Jarolim
78 min. Benjamin for Diekmeier

Yellow Cards: Vidal (Leverkusen); Jarolim, Guerrero, Westermann (all Hamburg)

Goals:
0:1 Westermann (2 min.)
1:1 Kießling (54 min.)

Statistics Leverkusen vs Hamburg
Posession: 67 % vs 33 %
Shots: 13 vs 11
Fouls: 14 vs 23
Corners: 5 vs 3
Offsides: 4 vs 3

Videos uploaded by third party with no link to Mundilev.tk. We assume no responsibility for it!

or here>> rutube.ru

Vollborn calming the fans during half-time

Hyypiä Farewell was ruined. Only a few players came out after the match to say goodbye in front of the fans. They were angry over the support received in the last games

More photos @ 1904-online.de

Match Preview: Bundesliga, Fixture 28, 1.FC Kaiserslautern vs Bayer Leverkusen

Saturday, 02/04/2011 @ 15:30 (GMT+2) << Time changed in Europe last weekend!

Press conference (Thursday)

Opening Statement Heynckes: Kaiserlautern has not lost any of the last 4 games.  They are known for playing in front of their fans to the limit from the 1st to the last minute.  Not only that, our opponent is also capable of playing a good ball given the talented players in their team.  But Bayer Leverkusen has made progress in the last weeks/months, we are not just a team which plays great football.  We have improved both physically and mentally and learned to play against these kind of opponent.  My team has been very focused in the training sessions during the 2 weeks break.  I am confident that we will see a performance which will enable us to grab the 3 points in play.

Question: Are you happy that finally the speculations on your future have ceased.  How did your team react to your decision to coach Bayern Munich next season?

Heynckes: Rudi Völler and Wolfgang Holzhäuser knew some weeks before that I would not extend my contract here.  It was good to let the team play those 4 matches (Villarreal-Mainz-Villarreal-Schalke) without knowing my decision.  Unfortunately we were eliminated in the Europa League, but against Mainz and Schalke we achieved two important victories in the league.  If you look at the reactions of my players in the press you can imagine that it was not easy for them. In these two years we have build a great relationship, it’s understandable that some were disappointed or surprised.  That’s why it was best to wait and announce my decision at the beginning of this 2 weeks break.  My players and staff had now sufficient time to process this news and will shift their full concentration to the next games.

Question: You said that you will focus on Bayer Leverkusen till the season ends and not answer any question on Bayern Munich.  Reading only the newspapers however it seems that you are already coach at Bayern.  How do you manage this situation?

Heynckes: You have to know the person Jupp Heynckes, his character and the values he defends.  I will not only focus 100% on Bayer Leverkusen, the emotional link towards the club will also not change.  Till the end of the season I will burn for Bayer 04.  I want to reach with my team the direct qualification for the Champions League.  We will achieve this because my team is strong and willing to reach this goal.  If you look back to March 1987 when I was coaching Mönchengladbach I also announced that I would leave to Bayern.  There were still 10 games ahead of us, we won them all.  Of course, you could say that the players were happy that I was leaving.  But it has more to do that they felt that nothing had changed.  The training sessions and my motivation continued to be as intensive as before.  With Bayer it will be the same, however I can’t promise 7 wins.  What I can promise that I will try everything possible to bring Leverkusen into the Champions League.

Question: How is Arturo Vidal? He was just running today…

Heynckes: Vidal and Kadlec played two games with their national team.  Yesterday both were recovering in the wellness area and today they had a light training session.  Both will join the team in the training session tomorrow.  All others players have trained to the full extent today.  Only M.Friedrich and Gonzalo Castro (knee problem) are injured.  Castro is feeling fine but the doctors have said that he should take it easy till next week.  He should be again available when we meet St.Pauli.

Line-up

Hyypiä has often been a question mark this season, according to the german media it’s also not sure whether he will add another year.  The Finnish player will take a decision at the end of the season.  It is possible that he will become a stand-by player or retire from active football.  Being a stand-by player involves him doing an apprenticeship at Bayer for the coaching license, train regularly and play when there is really a need for it because of injuries.  In case of retiring he could also decide switching Leverkusen for Finland or Liverpool to do his coaching license there.

Line-up Kaiserslautern (from Kicker):
Sippel-Dick,Abel,Rodnei,Jessen-Tiffert,Kirch-Rivic,Moravek,Hlousek-Lakic

Ballack will have to pay an 8.000 EUR fine for his “Scheiss FC Cologne” after the Schalke match.

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A good article on Heynckes and his conflict of interest: Link

Leverkusen have signed centre-back Ömer Toprak from SC Freiburg for the next season: Link

Game Report: Bundesliga, Fixture 27, Bayer Leverkusen vs Schalke 04 2:0

Seppo Eichkorn lost his only game in charge of Schalke as the visitors were comprehensively outplayed by Bayer Leverkusen.

A turbulent week for Schalke ended in disappointing fashion as interim coach Seppo Eichkorn’s side lost 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in what will be his only game in charge before Ralf Rangnick takes over.

The hosts were superior from start to finish, and clinched the three points thanks to a stunning Eren Derdiyok volley and a Christoph Metzelder own goal.

Neuer produced two top-class stops in the opening ten minutes to keep Leverkusen at bay. First he denied Sidney Sam with a brave intervention at the feet of the winger before pulling off a superb one-handed stop to keep out a Michael Ballack header. Schalke’s first sight of goal came on 16 minutes when Rene Adler parried Edu’s shot into the path of Daniel Schwaab, who hastily cleared the ball over his own crossbar.

Leverkusen took the lead in the nineteenth minute through one of the goals of the season. Michael Ballack won the ball back in midfield and played in Eren Derdiyok who composed himself before unleashing an unstoppable right-footed volley past a stunned Manuel Neuer, who barely saw the ball fly into the net. It was the Swiss striker’s first goal against die Koenigsblauen and his fifth this season.

The home side doubled their lead nine minutes later with a goal as farcical as the first one was brilliant. Renato Augusto whipped another superb ball into the penalty box, and under pressure from Michael Ballack, Metzelder could only head past a helpless Neuer into his own net. As own goals go, it was a fine effort but one which also deepened Schalke’s woes.

Jupp Heynckes’ men continued to have the upper hand after the break and Neuer was forced to dive to his left to parry a Derdiyok drive away. Raul, who had been quiet for most of the game, shot straight at Adler on 51 minutes after good work from Edu, who cut in from the left. Adler then tipped Jose Jurado’s right-footed drive behind on 66 minutes but Schalke could not create any clear-cut opportunities against a strong Bayer defence.

The home side, who showed no ill-affects despite the intense speculation surrounding the future of Heynckes, could have had a third late on but Sam was a little too nonchalant, as well as selfish, when one-on-one with Neuer, who spread himself and made the save. Had he played the ball to Kiessling, it would have been the icing on the cake and the perfect tonic after the Europa League elimination at the hands of Villarreal.

Leverkusen’s seventh win at the Bay Arena this season means they cut the gap to leaders Borussia Dortmund to seven points, while Schalke remain in tenth.

Source: Goal.com 

Line-up: Leverkusen (top) vs Schalke (bottom)

Substitutions Leverkusen
74 min. L. Bender for Balitsch
84 min. Kießling for Derdiyok
88 min. Barnetta for Renato Augusto

Substitutions Schalke
46 min. Papadopoulos for Metzelder
59 min. Draxler for Edu
71 min. Charisteas for Gavranovic

Yellow Cards: Renato Augusto, Ballack (both Leverkusen); Uchida,Raúl,Annan (all Schalke)

Goals:
1:0 Derdiyok (19 min.)
2:0 Metzelder (27 min. own goal)

Statistics Leverkusen vs Schalke
Posession: 61 % vs 39 %
Shots: 13 vs 7
Fouls: 16 vs 27
Corners: 8 vs 3
Offsides: 4 vs 3

Videos uploaded by third party with no link to Mundilev.tk. We assume no responsibility for it!

or here>> rutube.ru

Ballack doing Uffta (Post-Game celebration) including Scheiss FC Cologne

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Jupp Heynckes will finish coaching football Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. He will not extend his two year contract. “Mr. Heynckes told us that he will not be available for an additional year,“ Bayer 04-Director Wolfgang Holzhäuser explained. Robin Dutt (46) will take over as new head coach on 1 July 2011.

Continue reading: Bayer04.de

There are a lot of new developments on contract extensions and possible new signings in the forum!

Match Preview: Bundesliga, Fixture 27, Bayer Leverkusen vs Schalke 04

Sunday, 20/03/2011 @ 15:30 (GMT+1)

As if the Europa League elimination wasn’t sufficient on its own, Bayer 04 could miss 5 players on Sunday:

• Gonzalo Castro
• Renato Augusto
• Eren Derdiyok
• Stefan Kiessling
• Sami Hyypiä

They have all minor complications: muscular problems and swollen ankles or wades. Depending on today’s training they will be called up or not.

Schalke 04 will travel to Leverkusen without coach Magath who was fired during the week and has joined Wolfsburg a few days later.  Ralf Rangnick, ex-Hoffenheim coach this season, will take over the team on Monday.  The 2nd coach Josef Eichkorn will lead the Schalke Squad in the BayArena.  Good news is that Farfán (suspended) and Huntelaar (injured), two important attacking players will be not available.

I am not going to make any prediction on the line-up, there are just too many question marks.

Here is current prediction of Kicker

Leverkusen:
Adler – Schwaab,Reinartz,Hyypiä,Kadlec – Ballack,Rolfes – Sam,Renato Augusto,Castro – Kießling

Schalke 04:
Neuer – Uchida,Höwedes,Metzelder,Escudero – Kluge,Annan – Jurado,Edu – Raul,Gavranovic

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On Monday/Tuesday we will have a decision on whether Heynckes will continue or not for another season.  I will keep you posted on the social networks!

Match Preview: Europa League, Round of 16 (first-leg), Bayer Leverkusen vs Villarreal

10/03/2011 @ 19:00 (GMT+1)

Press Conference with Heynckes and Derdiyok (Wednesday)

Opening Statement Jupp Heynckes: I already knew a lot about Villarreal before the draw, of course I have continued to study them in more detail after knowing that they could be our next opponent.  We face a team that can play at the highest level possible.  I follow the Spanish league just like the Bundesliga and Pep Guardiola said not long ago about Villarreal: “On good days Villarreal is an absolute top team in Europe.”  It will be therefore a difficult match, but I am optimistic because we have also a top team that has played good football in the last weeks.

Eren Derdiyok: The coach informed us on the strengths of Villarreal.   They play a good ball and have great players on their team who can decide a match in any moment.

Question: Mr. Heynckes when are you going to extend your contract at Bayer 04?

Heynckes: We have 4 important matches in the next two weeks.  After the game against Schalke I am going to sit down with the management and we will battle for a decision. (Note: Investments in new players seem to play a big role together with the requirement that Leverkusen needs to play in the Champions League.  The management has a “Plan B” and secured an buy out option on Robin Dutt who renewed his contract at Freiburg till 2012)

Question: Apart from Barnetta and M.Friedrich will everyone else be called up for this match including Michael Ballack?

Heynckes: M.Friedrich is out for 4 to 6 weeks, that’s very unfortunate.  Barnetta has been training very well but caught a stomach bug yesterday.  He is the fifth or sixth player that had this problem in the last week.  Regarding Michael Ballack, he trained intensively, for example yesterday in an extra-session running stairs and doing other exercises for over an hour.  Michael is not going to join us in our team concentration tonight.

Question: Is the rotation that you practised in the Europa League going to end tomorrow against this strong opponent? Will Derdiyok play from the beginning? In the past the player that accompanied you on the press conference normally made the starting line-up.

Heynckes: You know me well.  Yes, Eren is going to start.  I have been switching strikers in nearly every game in the last weeks.  I don’t know if you observed the goal celebration of Kiessling on Saturday, he ran to Eren, this mirrors the great atmosphere in the team.  Tomorrow I plan not to change much, Vidal is set to return and the rest are going to be the usual suspects we all know.

Question: Eren, a few weeks ago René Adler told us that he dreamed of playing the final.  Do you also have this dream? Is this allowed?

Derdiyok: Of course you can dream, but it’s important to focus on handling everything step by step.  We have now a difficult task at home, we need to play with full concentration and intelligently.  This needs to be then repeated again away.  If you keep winning, then it’s ok to dream because you are getting nearer and nearer to this objective.

Question: Mr.Heynckes, how optimistic are you that we will see a crowded BayArena tomorrow and not only 15,16 or 17.000?

Heynckes: I heard that already 20.000 tickets have been sold.  I’m positive that we are going to have a good stadium atmosphere tomorrow.  I liked the support on Saturday, my team will need it to be successful.

Line-up

Line-up Villarreal (from MARCA):
D.López,Mario-Gonzalo-Marchena-J.Oriol,B.Valero-Bruno,Cani-Cazorla,Nilmar-Rossi

Vidal and Sidney Sam will miss the return leg if they see a yellow tonight.

Video uploaded by third party with no link to Mundilev.tk. We assume no responsibility for it!

Presentation of Giuseppe Rossi

See you all in the Chat tonight!  Auf geht’s Bayer: Kämpfen und Siegen! (Let’s go Bayer: Fight and Win!)

Heynckes to Bayern Munich next season?

After Bayern’s defeat to Hannover, a crisis meeting was organised on Sunday between management (Uli Hoeness, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Karl Hopfner and Christian Nerlinger) and the coaching team (Van Gaal and his assistants).  The outcome was announced in a press statement: Van Gaal will leave the club at the conclusion of this season.

According to insider information of the Bavarian newspaper “TZ” Jupp Heynckes seems to be candidate no.1 to take over next season.

It seems unlikely for these reasons:

• Heynckes is 65 and looking forward to retire soon.  One of the reasons for delaying his contract extension at Bayer 04, was to check whether he still has the energy for another season.  2-3 years in a big club like Bayern would go against his statement.  A 1 year contract with the Bavarians seems unlikely.
• The coach has expressed in many occasions that he feels very well at Leverkusen. 
• Coaching Bayern Munich in the Europa League next season is not what he is looking for

What speaks for it?

• Heynckes is a very good friend of President Uli Hoeness
• Bayern Munich is a dream workplace for every coach
• Contract extension with Leverkusen is still unsigned

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Manuel Friedrich is expected to be sidelined for several weeks after fracturing his shoulder.