Stefan Reuter made the King Kong in the 82nd minute of the game. Augsburg’s manager signaled to his exhausted players with a few drumbeats on the proud chest that they should continue to put everything into it, although they obviously couldn’t breathe in the heat of Leverkusen and the storm of chances of the factory club. Less than a minute later, everyone in Augsburg must have felt like King Kongs: They scored the goal they didn’t think was possible to make it 2-1 (1-1) at Bayer 04, ending a series that was more reliable than a championship tip FC Bayern. Augsburg had never won one of the previous 22 Bundesliga games played by these clubs. Until King Kong afternoon 2022.
If that happened too quickly, we recommend a look back at the time before the first competitive game of the season. Anyone who took a short tour of the Bundesliga squad should have looked twice or three times at Bayer Leverkusen. Astonishing things had been achieved in third place last season: Patrik Schick, who was coveted throughout Europe, was not sold, but persuaded to extend his contract without threats of violence; the dribbling king Moussa Diaby, coveted throughout Europe, could be kept; the nimble full-back Jeremie Frimpong, who was observed throughout Europe, stayed, just as all the players who were supposed to be held could be held.
Florian Wirtz is also expected to return in late autumn, so observers were very curious to see how newcomers like Adam Hlozek and Iranian Sarder Azmoun, who had meanwhile been introduced to the team, would spur on the competition. Coach Gerardo Seoane spoke of a “luxury situation” – and while it’s nice when someone with big goals doesn’t get carried away in the age of platitudes, it was somehow kismet how quickly and how severely that assessment was punished.
FCA goalkeeper Gikiewicz, recently criticized harshly, managed nine saves
Because 270 minutes of football later, Bayer Leverkusen is the only Bundesliga club to have lost all three competitive games: 3:4 in the cup at third division Elversberg, 0:1 in Dortmund and now 1:2 against favorite opponent Augsburg. Chic: zero goals and zero assists in the league; Diaby: zero goals and zero assists; Azmoun: zero goals and zero assists, but Schick looked at it askance several times, who obviously doesn’t like how often the Iranian goes for a header in areas where Schick would like to get the ball. A season for the factory club last started in 1979 with three competitive defeats in a row. And you can’t help but think of Borussia Mönchengladbach, who were celebrated last season for having kept their well-rehearsed team together – and then experienced a terrible season.
Premiere goal: Fredrik Jensen (right) scored Augsburg’s first goal of the Bundesliga season.
(Photo: Jan Brüggemann/Imago)
The crowning meanness was the course of the game against Augsburg. Similar to many visitors who missed the kick-off due to traffic jams and train cancellations, the hosts also seemed absent at first. As if the series against FCA would continue by itself, Leverkusen let themselves be tempted to make bad passes and had to watch how the guests scored a wonderfully played goal after five one-touch stations, which one would have expected from the big opponent. Fredrik Jensen finished with the pick (15th).
For 30 minutes, the team of the new Augsburg coach Enrico Maaßen surprised the opponent with brisk pressing – but when Bayer decided to start playing, the game seemed to tip over. Charles Aránguiz made it 1-1 before the break with a direct acceptance (43rd minute), and after Leverkusen had failed five times due to the recently harshly criticized FCA goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz, Aránguiz again seemed to provide the usual image when he passed the ball over the keeper into the goal (69th) – but referee Benjamin Cortus found that the Chilean, who weighed 50 kilograms, had illegally cleared the light heavyweight Gruezo out of the way.
Substitute André Hahn scores on his 32nd birthday
“There’s a little nudge,” said Bayer central defender Jonathan Tah later, “but I wouldn’t have whistled as a referee.” His coach Seoane, who is so often concerned about moderation, said: “That’s the scope for interpretation that the referee has”, before surprising with the assessment: “It wasn’t the decision, we didn’t have enough chances to score.”
Did what he could: Leverkusen’s attackers failed again and again at FCA goalkeeper Rafael Gikiewicz (middle).
(Photo: Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
When Gikiewicz thwarted two more big chances (“Today I sometimes got in the way”, the Pole said later with a smile) and substitute Augsburg striker André Hahn scored in the middle in front of the goal on his 32nd birthday, you could almost guess that that a date with history was coming up here. Hahn overcame Leverkusen’s substitute goalkeeper Lunew, and it was actually immediately clear that the offside decision of the overzealous flag-waving assistant referee would be conceded. It just had to be like that on the day King Kong smashed Leverkusen.