“I guess it really wasn’t a dream!” On Sunday morning, VfL Bochum’s Twitter account needed to verify the reality of what had been a wonderful, strange afternoon with a snap of the scoreboard at the 90-minute mark. Relegation favourites at the start of the campaign, surprisingly must-watch since, Thomas Reis’s team have been a tough nut to crack, especially at their atmospheric, chocolate box Ruhrstadion. Making life uncomfortable for visitors and becoming the first team to put four first-half goals past Bayern Munich since November 1975 is slightly different, however.
The club’s managing director, Sebastian Schindzielorz, told Sky 90 the game might even surpass the fixture from September 1976, when Bochum had led 4-0 against the European champions and ended up losing 6-5. “Potentially it’s a new game of the century,” said Schindzielorz. “Now we can talk about a replacement for it. It’s a game that will go down in the history books of VfL Bochum.”
Robert Lewandowski and Christopher Antwi-Adjei exchanged goals in the opening 15 minutes, a scenario Reis would have happily taken, but Bayern were finished off by an astonishing salvo of three goals in a six-minute spell just before half-time. Jürgen Locadia gave the home side the lead by smashing a penalty past stand-in goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, right-back Cristian Gamboa thrashed a magnificent drive into the top corner after nutmegging Kingsley Coman in the buildup to his first Bundesliga goal and then danger man Gerrit Holtmann curled a beauty around Ulreich from the edge of the penalty area. It was dizzying. The 8,500 home fans “freaked out long before the final whistle,” wrote WAZ’s Ralph Knight.
“The first half was from another planet,” said Holtmann. Rejected by Werder Bremen as a youth player, able to dip a toe in the top flight with Mainz and Paderborn without really establishing himself, the 26-year-old is having a sensational season. This was the crowning glory, with Reis’s tactics built around Holtmann’s ability to carry the ball at pace and lead counterattacks. It went so well that his picture-book goal was even rattled in with his right foot, rather than his preferred left.
RB Leipzig 3-1 Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-2 Augsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 0-2 Wolfsburg, Freiburg 1-1 Mainz, Greuter Fürth 2-1 Hertha Berlin, Bochum 4-2 Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 Stuttgart, Union Berlin 0-3 Borussia Dortmund, Hoffenheim 2-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Bochum’s bravery was something else. For what it’s worth, they were missing their own first-choice goalkeeper as Michael Esser stepped in for the excellent Manuel Riemann, who was laid low with Covid. Faced with Coman and Serge Gnabry, their full-backs, Gamboa and Danilo Soares, chose to fight fire with fire. Gamboa’s cheeky trick on the way to his goal was their attitude in microcosm.
For Julian Nagelsmann, there was plenty of food for thought. He had wondered aloud whether Bayern were too open in last week’s thrilling win over Leipzig and those fears were realised, with the use of Thomas Müller in central midfield an attacking player too many. “They will not win the Champions League with this unconditional hooray football,” wrote Bild’s Matthias Brügelmann. Whereas Nagelsmann’s own capacity for self-reflection is in little doubt, there is increasing concern over whether he, like his predecessor, Hansi Flick, might begin to question recruitment.
At the end of a week when it was announced Niklas Süle would be joining Borussia Dortmund next season – like David Alaba, Bayern decided to assent to his wage pretentions – it is clear the projected defensive rebuild hasn’t worked out, or not yet at least. The leaking of stories about Süle since the announcement to justify letting him walk (including claims about his attitude and his post-Christmas weight) do not reflect well and neither did the performance of Dayot Upamecano, who conceded the penalty by handling Holtmann’s cross and was substituted at half-time.
Grad auch nochmal Videotext geguckt: War wohl wirklich kein Traum!🤩#meinVfL #BOCFCB 4:2 pic.twitter.com/YBsDzFXK0C
— VfL Bochum 1848 (@VfLBochum1848eV) February 13, 2022
This occasion, though, was more about celebration than analysis. Sebastian Fischer of Süddeutsche Zeitung hailed Bochum’s pre-interval flurry as “a reminder of football before the pandemic”, a return to joy. Reis may have spoken at full-time of refocussing minds to secure safety from relegation, the primary objective. But not yet, please. It’s only Monday.
Talking points
Dortmund recovered from last week’s beating by Leverkusen by winning 3-0 at Union, with the home side still looking a little lost up front after the abrupt exit of Max Kruse to Wolfsburg. A neatly taken first-half double by Marco Reus laid the foundations, with the first his 150th goal for the club. The captain was not in the mood to talk about the (notional) title race, even with BVB closing the gap on Bayern to six points. “Don’t ask the question any more, please,” he said to DAZN.
Kruse continued his great (re) start at Wolfsburg, typically nerveless in notching the penalty he won to set Florian Kohfeldt’s team on the road to victory at Eintracht Frankfurt. “In tight situations, he has a nose for what’s coming next,” said Kohfeldt, while the striker spoke frankly of his departure from Union on Das Aktuelle Sportstudio on Saturday. “There was no bad blood,” he said of his relationship with the Union coach, Urs Fischer, “but we had a different view of things one way or another.”
Propelled by Alessane Pléa, Borussia Mönchengladbach snared a vital win over Augsburg by the odd goal in five. It was tighter than it should have been, with Alfred Finnbogason’s well-taken late goal for the visitors fortunately too late to elicit real panic. The win – “an absolute liberation,” according to coach Adi Hütter – moved Gladbach four points ahead of the relegation play-off place. “We’re not where we want to be yet, but we withstood the pressure,” he said.
After their eye-catching performance in defeat at Bayern last week, Leipzig shone again in beating Köln 3-1, a victory even more comprehensive than it sounds and garlanded with excellent long-range hits from Christopher Nkunku and Dani Olmo. It’s looking good, with the team back in the top four and a clear path to DFB Pokal glory with much of the competition fallen by the wayside and it has been noted locally how Domenico Tedesco has continued to be publicly demanding of his players, even after wins, in a way Jesse Marsch seemed not to be.
The prospect of next season’s second tier turning into an Avengers Endgame-type affair looms larger after more defeats for Stuttgart – 4-2 at Leverkusen – and sinking-like-a-stone Hertha, who slid to defeat at rock-bottom Greuther Fürth. Stuttgart were gutsy in their trip north, spurred on by two goals from on-loan Portuguese teenager Tiago Tomas on his first start, but ultimately trimmed apart by Leverkusen’s superior quality (Florian Wirtz again scored and assisted), with sporting director Sven Mislintat telling Sky his side “now need to beat opponents on an equal footing” with VFB four points adrift of the play-off.
Meanwhile Hertha went a goal down in Fürth to a strike from Branimir Hrgota after 26 seconds and it rarely got much better from there despite a flurry of chances. Hrgota, one of the season’s low-key stars, took his tally for the season to seven and the capital club, and their already embattled coach, Tayfun Korkut, were left to their soul searching. “We can’t do it without fighting for it,” midfielder Vladimir Darida said ominously.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 22 | 45 | 52 |
| 2 | Borussia Dortmund | 22 | 21 | 46 |
| 3 | Bayer Leverkusen | 22 | 22 | 41 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 22 | 16 | 34 |
| 5 | Hoffenheim | 22 | 9 | 34 |
| 6 | Freiburg | 22 | 9 | 34 |
| 7 | Union Berlin | 22 | -1 | 34 |
| 8 | Cologne | 22 | -3 | 32 |
| 9 | Mainz | 22 | 7 | 31 |
| 10 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 22 | -1 | 31 |
| 11 | VfL Bochum | 22 | -8 | 28 |
| 12 | Wolfsburg | 22 | -10 | 27 |
| 13 | Borussia M'gladbach | 22 | -10 | 26 |
| 14 | Hertha Berlin | 22 | -21 | 23 |
| 15 | Arminia Bielefeld | 22 | -8 | 22 |
| 16 | Augsburg | 22 | -14 | 22 |
| 17 | Stuttgart | 22 | -16 | 18 |
| 18 | Greuther Furth | 22 | -37 | 13 |
