5 DAYS AGO - The BVB coach’s ‘plan worked perfectly’ in Klassiker draw but Bayern’s manager continues to be full of surprisesThe meaning of Der Klassiker has changed significantly down the years. Having been a zenith fixture of Bayern Munich v current challenger of substance in the past, it is now set in stone in the post-Klopp years as the Rekordmeister v Borussia Dortmund, that branding remaining even with BVB having largely morphed from genuine challenger to most frequent irritant.There is a comforting regularity to it. The opener in Dortmund as autumn turns to winter, the April return in Munich and, so often, the arena in which BVB dreams of bigger and better are turned to mulch. The 5-0 at Allianz Arena in spring 2019 which was done and dusted inside the first 20 minutes, holding BVB’s title charge in check. Bayern’s win here in 2020 in front of no fans, snuffing out any home hopes of the Bundesliga just days after the post-Covid resumption. This time last year, it was Harry Kane’s hat-trick Collapse

24/11/2024 - Barça blow two-goal lead after Marc Casadó is sent offSimeone wins 700th game at Atléti; Inter 5-0 VeronaCelta Vigo fought back with two late goals in quick succession to hold Barcelona to an-action-packed 2-2 draw. It looked as though Barça were cruising towards victory after the La Liga leaders opened a two-goal lead thanks to strikes by Raphinha in the first half and by Robert Lewandowski after an hour’s play, but the script changed when Marc Casadó was sent off due to a second yellow card for a foul in the 82nd minute.With Barcelona down to 10 men, the home side piled on the pressure and managed to score twice, through Alfonso González then Hugo Álvarez in the 84th and 86th minutes respectively. Continue reading... Collapse

11/11/2024 - Socialist club were defeated again but there were reasons to be hopeful on and off the pitch at the MillerntorIt was, in many ways, one of those games we see far too many of today. A significant gap between two sides in the same division all too apparent, with the lesser just keeping their powder dry and holding on, aiming to give themselves a puncher’s chance in the final stages. Bayern Munich emerged victorious thanks to an out-of-this-world rocket from range by Jamal Musiala, a moment of quality seemingly designed to underline the gulf.St Pauli were the home side yet feeding off scraps. They had three shots during the match, none of them on target. They are still scoreless at home after five matches, now an unenviable Bundesliga record. Have a group of people ever wanted to hear Song 2 by Blur, which greeted goal after goal in last season’s dizzy title-winning campaign, so badly? Alexander Blessin’s team could not have given any more – they collectively ran almost six kilometres Collapse

04/11/2024 - Jürgen Klopp’s defection to the Red Bull empire served as fuel for fans as Nuri Sahin enjoyed a significant winWhen was the last time we spent so much mental energy attempting to decipher the result of a TopSpiel? The weekly Saturday early evening showcase in the Bundesliga is often the biggest and best of the weekend and a game that intrigues and satisfies, but this latest episode of Borussia Dortmund versus RB Leipzig caught us all on the hop.The wind, after all, seemed to be blowing one way. BVB had suffered three consecutive defeats with varying degrees of misery – the eventual 5-2 loss at Real Madrid in which they had played pretty well for most of the game, the 2-1 at Augsburg in which they certainly didn’t, and the extra-time 1-0 loss at Wolfsburg in midweek which ended their interest in the DfB Pokal. There was little to suggest that Dortmund were the team to bring Leipzig’s 19-game unbeaten run in the Bundesliga to a juddering halt. Yet Nuri Sahin’s side did just that and Collapse

27/10/2024 - PSG blitz Marseille with three-goal first halfKane and Olise on target as Bayern Munich win 5-0Piotr Zielinski converted two penalties for Inter as they played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Juventus, for whom Kenan Yildiz scored a late brace, in Serie A on Sunday.The five-goal opening half began with Marcus Thuram earning a penalty, which Zielinski converted to give Inter the lead after 15 minutes. Juve equalised five minutes later through Dusan Vlahovic and then took the lead with a strike from Timothy Weah, all within a six-minute span. After Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalised for Inter in the 35th minute, Zielinski scored his second from the penalty spot two minutes later, handing Inter a 3-2 lead going into the break. Continue reading... Collapse

19/10/2024 - Fans of Klopp’s former club display banners at gameKane hat-trick sinks Stuttgart; Celta Vigo 1-2 Real MadridJürgen Klopp has been criticised by fans of his former club Mainz for his decision to join the energy drinks company Red Bull and oversee its network of clubs. Mainz supporters held banners during their team’s Bundesliga game against Leipzig – a Red Bull-backed club – in which they addressed their former hero.“Have you forgotten everything we gave you?” asked one huge banner behind one of the goals, referring to Klopp’s tearful farewell speech when he left the club after 18 years as a player and coach in 2008. Continue reading... Collapse

07/10/2024 - These clubs are authors of improbable rises up the levels of German football, albeit with key differences in their details“Many people here,” asserted Frank Schmidt, “don’t even know what my team achieved here today, playing for a result until the end against a Champions League participant. I would like to encourage everyone to look at their performance a little. It was sensational.”RB Leipzig emerged victorious from this Sunday meeting of European competition recoverers in southern Germany which, in context, had no business being as satisfying and as enduringly interesting as it turned out to be. Yet here was coach Schmidt feeling he had the unusual task of defending his team after a historic week in Heidenheim’s history, which almost had an even better ending. Continue reading... Collapse

30/09/2024 - The Spaniard was relieved to escape with a draw and highlighted the transformation of Bayern under new coach“The biggest difference,” said Xabi Alonso, “is the energy. The belief. You can feel it.” He could have been talking about his own effect on Bayer Leverkusen, an extraordinary transformation as he approaches the second anniversary of his appointment later this week; two years that have taken the locals’ brains to another dimension, to quote Kool Keith, that have achieved undreamed-of heights and maybe even permanently raised expectations.Alonso wasn’t, however, talking about his own team. The coach was referring to the fledgling work of his opposite number Vincent Kompany after Leverkusen escaped – and this really is the right verb here – with a point from Saturday’s TopSpiel at Bayern Munich. Alonso had achieved an unusual and largely anecdotal record in becoming the first coach not to experience defeat in his first four meetings with Bayern, but it had not been easy. If the Collapse

28/09/2024 - Bayern Munich forward on his strange route into English football, declaring for Germany and facing LeverkusenDon’t try this at home. It was October 2010 when a dad turned up at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium with his seven-year-old son. It wasn’t match day, however. The dad was just looking for a game for his boy. Recently arrived from Germany, they hadn’t a clue about the English football scene. It seemed natural to head down to the nearest professional club and ask to play.Which is how Jamal Musiala, Germany’s generational talent, took his first steps to becoming Bayern Munich’s key creative playmaker – in Southampton, a vulnerable young boy, without a word of English, looking up at his dad, desperately trying to find somewhere to play. Continue reading... Collapse