Julian Schuster was a solid football pro who was googled and mentioned more recently than when he was playing a few years ago. After all, it was the Freiburger who shot Felix Magath out of the Bundesliga – apparently forever. After the 2-0 loss to Breisgau, Magath had to vacate the coaching bench at VfL Wolfsburg in October 2012. On Saturday, the profile of the former champion coach was renewed and Schuster got a successor: Lucas Alario gave Magath and his new club Hertha BSC a stab by conceding the next goal against the now 68-year-old coach, 3451 days after Magath’s previous last Use on a German sideline.
In the end, from a Berlin perspective, it was 1: 2 (1: 2) in Leverkusen, but the coach seemed mild, he found the defeat at the factory club neither surprising nor bad: “We played against third in the table – and that Leverkusen is the better team “, is out of the question. “I’m still confident,” said Magath, even though his team slipped back down to 17th place.
That’s not to say Magath had nothing to complain about. “In the first half we didn’t offer enough fights, that shouldn’t be the case in our situation,” complained the coach. After the 3-0 win against Hoffenheim two weeks ago, which Magath could only experience from home due to a corona infection, “I thought that everyone knew that we had to fight and fight”. But puff cake. After all: “The second half was better, we looked better and embarrassed Leverkusen.”
Little has stuck with the lessons of the Harsewinkel training camp
On the one hand, that was an idiosyncratic view – but on the other hand, because Leverkusen failed to score the third goal, the equalizer was possible until injury time. This was confirmed by Bayer coach Gerardo Seoane, who said: “From the 75th minute I got a little worried because the four players in front didn’t take their chances – and some got too tired to work backwards.” However, the concerns of the Swiss were unfounded, Hertha never became really dangerous.
It should be noted that the game had started differently: Hertha spread into the opposing penalty area from the start and had the first chance through Maximilian Mittelstädt in the Bayer chaos. The only problem was that the phase was over after two minutes. Berlin’s immensely popular new assistant coach Mark Fotheringham tried to manage the team but to no avail. And then that was demanded, which Hertha can do even less this season than attack – namely defend.
Dry into the corner: Karim Bellarabi (in the background) scores 2-0 against Berlin goalkeeper Marcel Lotka
(Photo: Sebastian Räppold/Matthias Koch/Imago)
On Friday Magath was still raving about the teamwork at the Harsewinkel training camp, but little of the lessons learned. And the new coaching staff can hardly narrow the spaces themselves if a team like Bayer manages to let the balls circulate with a little more precision and at a higher speed.
Holes were immediately recognizable, into which Moussa Diaby in particular slipped elegantly. After 33 minutes with countable success: A wobble on the way to the wing was enough to get the space to serve a fine, low cross behind the Berlin defence, which gave Lucas Alario the opportunity to demonstrate his technical skills, which were sometimes called into question to demonstrate: Standing with his back to the goal, the Argentinian tapped the ball a little outwards and, after a skillful turn of the body, closed it with his right foot in the far corner of the goal.
Moussa Diaby also assists the factory club’s second goal
Diaby had acquired a taste for it. Six minutes later, the Frenchman curved back through the Berlin ranks, served Karim Bellarabi, who dispensed with artistic flourishes and pushed the ball into the corner to make it 2-0. The guests showed more commitment off the field than on it – noble reservist Kevin-Prince Boateng was warned because he saw a foul in the creation of the second goal.
Was that the 2-0 knockout against a Berlin team that hadn’t posed any danger since the second minute? Not at all, and it didn’t even require any threatening gestures from the sidelines. As if nothing could be taken for granted, Hertha caught up before the break – with the friendly support of Leverkusen, who are known for being rather careless with 2-0 leads this season. Vladimir Darida promptly used the disorder in defense to bounce the ball just under the bar to make it 2-1 (42′).
Had Hertha realized that the best way to beat Leverkusen is on the defensive? Would the team push hard for an equaliser? The answers were: no; and no. The guests were now very low again, as if someone had given the players the wrong intermediate result. The Berliners ran a lot (124.6 kilometers), much more than the Leverkusen (113.6) – but they ran behind in the first place.
As much as Hertha then tried to downplay the events of the day – the facts told another, devastating story: Goalkeeper Schwolow injured and replaced, defensive rascal Niklas Stark injured and replaced, the whole team too good in the duels, lost 1: 2, only a real big chance, back in 17th place – and now the derby against Union Berlin is coming. “We have to improve there,” said Felix Magath. And was absolutely right.