It was a moment for conspiracy theorists when Wolfsburg coach Niko Kovac substituted attacker Tiago Tomas after 63 minutes. Two minutes earlier, Tomas had caught the eye by running at several opposing players at high speed, thus leaving the frame of a game that was going at 1-0 for the home team, Bayer Leverkusen Andante comodo had leveled off. Leverkusen exchanged short and medium-range passes at walking pace, while Wolfsburg, positioned in full formation in the penalty area, followed the calm movement of the ball. Older spectators were reminded of the non-aggression pact in the World Cup game between Germany and Austria, when both teams preserved a useful result (1-0, 1982) by doing nothing.
Apparently Tiago Tomas couldn’t stand the routine anymore, he ran off, pointlessly but energetically – and the troublemaker promptly had to leave. Because he had irritated the Leverkusen team too much to get serious against VfL, who had been outnumbered since Moritz Jenz was sent off in the 26th minute? Or because his zeal disrupted Niko Kovac’s master plan, who had planned a huge surprise for the final phase and tried to put the opponent to sleep until then through maximum passivity?
As with all conspiracy theories, there is no satisfactory resolution. Kovac did not take a firm stance on the Tomas case, and his alleged master plan failed just as he wanted to implement it. Just as he had the offensive players Hanno Behrens and Patrick Wimmer ready for substitution, Florian Wirtz scored the 2-0 for Bayer 04 and rounded off the evening: Bayer remained undefeated again in the 36th competitive game of the season, Wolfsburg again without a win in the tenth League game in a row.
Rarely has a more ambitious team presented itself in the Bayarena
If Kovac really intended to prepare his team for a surprise attack in the final minutes, he prepared the maneuver with brilliant deception. Rarely, perhaps never, has a more ambitious team presented itself in the Bayarena than that of VfL on Sunday evening. It is actually not possible to protest less against a deficit than Wolfsburg did. There were no counterattacks by VfL in the second half because there was not even an attempt to start one. When Bayer keeper Lukás Hrádecky once threw himself to the ground to secure a return, it was just a mock joke – there was no opponent even within shouting distance.
Bayer director Granit Xhaka revealed that he “had a bit of a feeling that Wolfsburg wanted to keep the score at 0-1.” Leverkusen’s sports director Simon Rolfes also looked for polite words when he was asked to describe his impression of Wolfsburg’s behavior: “Yes, good,” he replied with a big smile, “it was a defensive tactic.”
Niko Kovac, on the other hand, was not afraid to tell the truth, even if it meant incriminating himself in front of the audience and the company: “After the red card, everything was over,” he explained. On another occasion he reported just as frankly and freely that the game was “over” at the moment of decimation. According to his logic, referee Daniel Siebert should have ended the game after 26 minutes, but because he was not allowed to do that, Kovac acted himself by first swapping striker Jonas Wind for defender Sebastiaan Bornauw and then stopping all offensive actions. Which he maintained even after Nathan Tella made it 1-0 (36′).
Apart from the fact that this form of self-sacrifice meant that Kovac once again did not give the impression that he was passionately fighting to keep his job, the Leverkusen team can see the opposing commander’s actions as a compliment. They are now seen as a superior force, with the guest happy to settle for a narrow defeat. VfL sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz and goalkeeper Koen Casteels said in awe that it was almost impossible to survive against this football miracle when they were outnumbered.
“That’s just the excellent attitude we have,” says goalkeeper Hrádecky
Bayer had to wait a long time for the second goal, with 899 passes on the statistics sheet – but the performance was still confident. Just like a skat player clears the so-called grandma, the table leader is now casually playing down his majority of trump cards from above. “Well,” said goalkeeper Hrádecky, “another weekend less.” But wasn’t the Leverkusen dressing room impressed that their pursuers had scored eight goals the day before? “I think half of them don’t even know what Bayern’s result was against Mainz,” said Hrádecky: “That’s just the excellent attitude that we have. Everyone does an excellent job, then goes home and enjoys life. “
Given all the clear facts, Xabi Alonso was asked at the end of the evening when it would be time for him to “talk about it”, about this thing called championship. “April!” Bayer’s coach replied immediately and everyone in the audience laughed. Because everyone knew that in April they would answer the same question: May!