The Rhine bridge on Autobahn 1 near Leverkusen has achieved a certain level of fame. It was the subject of a long-term documentary on the “Sendung mit der Maus”, but quite a few road users associate it with a relevant loss of life, as it has caused many major traffic jams in recent years. First it was dilapidated, then it was extensively replaced and on Friday dangerous chunks of ice fell from the new towers, so that the bridge had to be closed for hours to de-ice it. “This is a bridge that causes a lot of problems,” said traffic jam researcher Xabi Alonso late on Friday evening.
The 43-year-old Spaniard is of course actually the coach of the football champions Bayer Leverkusen, but on Friday Alonso also gave a lecture in the belly of the Dortmund stadium about the Rhine bridge, because the fact that it had once again been impassable for a long time on Friday In the evening of that day it even had an impact on the Leverkusen starting eleven during their guest appearance in Dortmund.
The Bayer footballers Florian Wirtz and Exequiel Palacios had gotten into a traffic jam in front of the closed bridge on the way to Leverkusen during the day and were therefore unable to be there when Alonso prepared the team for the game at BVB. “We talk to the players before every game so that they know what they have to do,” said Alonso, describing what happened on a match day, “but Flo wasn’t there this time and I know how important he is for the team. “
In any case, the two traffic jam victims had to come directly to Dortmund later. “It was for my peace of mind, I wanted things to be clear, it was my decision and not a disciplinary measure,” said Alonso, explaining why neither Wirtz nor Palacios were on the field at the start of the game. Alonso only replaced Wirtz in the 63rd minute, when Leverkusen was already leading 3-1; and Palacios came on in the 89th minute, when Leverkusen was only leading 3-2 but had already all but won.
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With two players coming out of traffic jams and three points for the win at BVB, Bayer Leverkusen moved very close to leaders Bayern Munich in the table, so to speak. Bayer is now 25 Bundesliga away games undefeated. To stay with the jargon: Bayer continues to enjoy free rein in terms of football.
Traffic jams are an issue for people – but what else bothers them in these wintry days? Flu! And this affected Leverkusen’s opponent Borussia Dortmund to a remarkable extent on Friday. “It was like a bad joke,” said coach Nuri Sahin in the evening, reporting the equally disrupted preparation for the Leverkusen game. “It felt like every hour there was a new message that someone was out again – a total of twelve people, players and staff.”
And so it happened that in addition to the injured Niklas Süle and the suspended Pascal Groß, BVB also had Emre Can, Nico Schlotterbeck, Waldemar Anton and Ramy Bensebaini – all defensive players – who were out with flu.
In the Dortmund defensive line, Yan Couto, who was actually only a supplementary player, played on the right wing, and in central defense, the actual full-back Julian Ryerson, as well as the two young and largely inexperienced Almugera Kabar, 18, with 46 minutes of Bundesliga experience, and Yannik Lührs, 21, previously 36 minutes.
BVB’s next games: Away in Kiel and Frankfurt
It was clearly due to the inexperience and lack of coordination of this back four that Leverkusen, who got off to a furious start, scored their first goal after 25 seconds (!) (Nathan Tella), their second after eight minutes and their third after 19 minutes. Both were scored by Patrik Schick, who now has eleven goals in the last six games.
Borussia Dortmund, previously undefeated in Friday home games for 21 years, was torn apart. Goals from Jamie Gittens (12th) and Serhou Guirassy (79th, penalty kick) improved the final result to 2:3, but the defeat wore down sports director Sebastian Kehl, who had had his contract extended until 2027 the day before. “That was extremely unfortunate, we started the game extremely badly,” said the 44-year-old contritely.
BVB is playing in Kiel on Tuesday and in Frankfurt next Friday – these are two games for Dortmund, who are already weak away from home, which are now even more important given the growing gap in the table to the Champions League qualification places. “We now have to be extremely careful that no one else gets infected,” says Kehl.
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