Even after the half-time break, to everyone’s surprise, the moon shone again over the pitch in the Leverkusen BayArena. Not the much appreciated satellite of the earth, which remained hidden behind clouds in the Rhineland on Friday evening, but the moon in a figurative sense, because no head in the Bundesliga currently shines more effectively on the pitch than Robert Andrich’s bright blonde head. And the fact that the national player continued to take part in the game between Bayer 04 and VfB Stuttgart was a surprise to the visitors to the Leverkusen stadium. Andrich had already been warned with a yellow card and with his forced effort he was on the verge of being sent off at seemingly every moment.
But Xabi Alonso continued to trust Andrich’s self-control and sent the midfielder back into the match, a decision as brave and characteristic as it was the right one. Under the Spanish coach’s regime, Andrich has matured from the upscale tough six, which he was in 2021 after moving from Berlin to Bayer 04, into a confident authority with high playing standards. He embodies the Alonso ideal, which aims in both directions: he accelerates and inspires the combination machinery, looks for the straight path to the opponent’s goal, appears courageous and responsible – and he can not only attack the opponent with his hard, biting and sometimes vicious attacks Nerves go, but also spoil the game. That’s why he left his internal team competitors Exequiel Palacios and Aleix Garcia behind and found his place in the national team.
That evening, Andrich had the versatile profile to represent the hard-fought, yet high-quality game between Bayer and VfB. However, neither he nor any of the 30 players who played on Friday managed to score a goal. The 0-0 draw left, among other things, Florian Wirtz despairing of the missed victory, a Stuttgart staff grateful for the point, and an audience that didn’t have to be bored for a second. The fifth meeting between the two teams within a year – including the Cup and Supercup – confirmed the impression of the previous encounters: Bundesliga football cannot currently offer more quality and enjoyment in any other pairing.
There was a constant alarm in the VfB defense, but Leverkusen were unable to score
Many critics will probably now notice that Bayer is no longer playing irresistibly like a champion and is giving up too many points, and that VfB is now feeling the risks and side effects of its sudden sporting upswing. That’s not entirely wrong, but it’s not at all surprising either, as neither in Leverkusen nor in Stuttgart could things continue like they did in the enchanted previous year. And neither Xabi Alonso nor Sebastian Hoeneß had any reason to believe on Friday that their teams had taken a step back into functional football. Stylistically, both trainers stay on course under significantly changed conditions. The struggles in everyday life are visible, both sides win less often, but they continue to do well in terms of football.
On Friday evening, Bayer had more to offer than VfB, whose defense was weak. It was not possible to contradict this statement, dictated Hoeneß: The fact that VfB were lucky to get to a draw was “quite obvious, there can be no two opinions,” explained the coach. VfB manager Fabian Wohlgemuth felt the home team’s stranglehold half an hour after the final whistle (“Leverkusen hardly gave us any room to breathe”).
Deniz Undav, in his clever way, almost made it 1-0 in one of the few bright moments of the VfB offensive, but the majority of the close situations occurred on the other side. Alonso, contrary to his custom, had set up a classic back four, with Nordi Mukiele and Piero Hincapié acting as full-backs. Jeremy Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo were promoted to full-time wingers as a result. The result: permanent alarm in the VfB defense. Nevertheless, Hoeneß abandoned the hedgehog mode and stuck to the risky method of fighting the Bayer offensive in one-on-one duels, which Victor Boniface in particular knew how to take advantage of.
Granit Xhaka recognized his team’s performance as “the best performance of the season.” Leverkusen’s midfield boss, who holds the rank of colonel general in the Bayer dressing room, denounced a few days ago that his colleagues had too often lacked intensity and determination. Now there was only a draw again, which doesn’t do much for either side in the table, “but I’m of the opinion that the point will help us move forward,” emphasized Xhaka. He thought his team had finally worked their way back to the level of the previous season with the necessary effort.
Both sides will know next week whether the price of the effort that was paid for the league’s neo-classic was perhaps too high: VfB welcomes Atalanta Bergamo in the Champions League, Bayer travels to Liverpool FC, Xabi Alonso’s former home as a professional. The dates show the level of stress at which the high-flyers from the previous season landed.
