The biblical passion story achieves its comforting effect not least through the predictable outcome. It’s different in football. At best, there are probabilities here, even if Arminia Bielefeld plays against Bayern Munich. Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann was asked five days after the Champions League defeat against Villareal and before the kick-off on Easter Sunday in Bielefeld whether he expected his team to react defiantly and make amends. He replied laconically, using appropriate imagery: “Resurrection would be quite good.”
In the end, as expected, Bayern also got their consolation six days before that top Bundesliga game against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday evening, in which they can clinch their tenth championship title in a row. “We want to finalize it there,” says Nagelsmann. The Bavarians won the helpful 3-0 (2-0) victory against Arminia 600 kilometers away from their home mountains on the Bielefelder Alm.
The stadium in the East Westphalian plain has been affectionately called Alm since the first Arminia soccer players played in 1920 on the pasture of a cow farmer who was called Lohmann and borrows his name from the Arminia mascot, a bull in a soccer jersey.
It is a well-known fact that bulls should not be provoked with colorful stimuli, but nobody expected that the Bavarians would do without their beloved red traditional costume because of this. In appropriate alarm-colored uniforms, they confronted the white and blue striped East Westphalians and, for the purpose of making amends, showed themselves in a condition that the industry calls “crunchy”. Robert Lewandowski’s first header in the 8th minute only landed on the crossbar from close range because Bielefeld’s artistically gifted goalkeeper Stefan Ortega deflected him there.
Nianzou with a red-worthy elbow use
Two minutes later, referee Matthias Jöllenbeck denied Bayern’s goal to make it 1-0. He could not see with the naked eye that Alphonso Davies was not offside after a long ball from Joshua Kimmich before he headed the ball into the Bielefeld penalty area in such a way that Lewandowski narrowly missed, while Jacob Laursen, who was behind him, got the ball with the chest bounce into his own goal. Only a video check confirmed the correctness of the hit.
Munich’s second goal was included in the game evaluation via déjà vu, i.e. also only after video use. Kimmich’s pass to the executor Serge Gnabry in the seventh minute of stoppage time was also millimeter work and decided the 2-0 lead at the break. So much stoppage time was needed because Bayern defender Tanguy Nianzou had gone elbow-first into a header duel with Fabian Kunze and had to watch Kunze being carried off the pitch with a yellow card. Even Nagelsmann later admitted that a red card would have been appropriate here. He took out the 19-year-old defender as an “educational measure”. But the missed sending off and an Arminia goal by Masaya Okugawa (43rd) that was disallowed because of an extremely narrow offside made the veins of the Bielefeld fans swell.
Bielefeld’s Fabian Kunze grapples with Bayern’s Tanguy Nianzou. In another duel, the Munich man uses his elbow dangerously.
(Photo: Martin Meissner/AP)
Among coaches one was weighed there. The Bielefeld coach Frank Kramer and Nagelsmann know each other from the time ten years ago at TSG Hoffenheim, when Kramer was coach of the second team there and Nagelsmann coach of the B youth. “We took our first steps in professional football together,” reported Kramer. Before the game, he was seen listening spellbound as Nagelsmann reported with gestures from the big, wide world of football.
Without the red endangered Nianzou and instead with Josip Stanisic in the back three, Bayern went into a second half, which they routinely downplayed at best. Jamal Musiala made it 3-0 with five minutes remaining. It was a stab in the heart of the bravely fighting Bielefeld. They too need a resurrection. They have managed just one point from a single goal in the past seven games, conceding 17 goals. They are threatened with relegation to the second division.
Of course, one cannot take into account the fate of individuals down in the valley on the summit. “Reduction of frustration”, Gnabry called the cool victory succinctly, his Bavarians don’t want to become champions with resentment next Saturday. Or maybe the success in East Westphalia doesn’t help at all? “It stays in the back of our minds,” said Kimmich after the game in Bielefeld with a view to losing the Champions League, “unfortunately we missed a great opportunity there.” But he’s looking forward to the game against Dortmund with a title option all the more. “We really wanted to win in Bielefeld so that we could make everything clear at home against Dortmund next Saturday,” said Kimmich.
Nagelsmann also saw the “matchball game” against BVB as an incentive for victory in Bielefeld. The second half against Arminia was not exactly “the mega treat”, “we have to play a bit better against Dortmund”. At the latest with the championship title, the Munich team could achieve the longed-for resurrection – even if Easter is long over.