BAYERN WINS BACK THE N°1 SPOT AS CHASERS KEEP ON STRUGGLING
The defending Champs take back the league lead after winning their
first game in a month while Dortmund wasted two points in Freiburg.
Schalke are held to a goalless draw by Eintracht Frankfurt while
fellow Champions League contenders Leverkusen destroyed the team
of 2001: Werder Bremen. Finally even Hertha and Kaiserslautern are
back in the title picture after two flattering home vitories against
Unterhaching and Rostock (Hertha) and 1860 München (FCK)
respectively.
7 MARCH 2001
HERTHA 2-1 UNTERHACHING
Dárdai 55 Zimmermann 52
Van Burik 68
Hertha was the more offensive team in the first half but as Wosz
was completely out of the game thanks to tight marking by Schwarz
the home side was unable to create any concrete chances. 'Haching
defended well and played straight counterattacking football.
After Spizak had already wasted several good chances in the first
half and Hirsch struck the crossbar 4 minutes after the break it
was inspirational captain Zimmermann who beat 'keeper Király to
Tretschok's hospital pass to give the guests the lead.
Pal Dárdai, in my opinion one of the most aggressive and dynamic
defensive midfielders in Europe, equalized with a shot from 20
meters 3 minutes later. Tretschok made up for his mistake when
he found Van Burik who chested the ball down and crashed home
the game-winning volley. [TL]
Attendance : 27,326
9 MARCH 2001
LEVERKUSEN 3-0 BREMEN
Lúcio 13
Neuville 55
Brdaric 63
Rink dived for a free kick at the edge of the box, Lúcio who only
arrived in Leverkusen hours before the game after playing Mexico with
the Seleçao on Thursday opened the scoring with a powerful header from
Zé Roberto's free kick - the beginning of the end. Verlaat who was
supposed to mark Lúcio criminally left the awesome Brasilian alone on
this one. Zé Roberto headed a header off the line at the other end.
Neuville and Schneider wasted huge chances 1-on-1 with the 'keeper
on the counter attack (yes, Bayer got to counter attack in their own
stadium !). Bayer's 2-0 was the most direct goal I have seen in quite
a while: Lúcio launched the ball upfield, Brdaric, who came on in the
2nd half for the ineffective Rink, strongly headed against the ball,
Neuville pounced onto it and outpaced Stalteri before lifting the
ball over Rost into the net.
The Werder 'keeper made an excellent save from another close-range
Neuville drive minutes later. Another textbook counter attack put the
game out of reach: Matysek speeded up play with a long throw-in and
Brdaric only had to swap passes with Neuville before tunnelling Rost
for the 3-0. Brdaric had "Für Dich Timmy" ("For You Timmy") written
on the shirt which he was wearing under his jersey, dedicted the goal
to me the cynical bastard...
Without wanting to take anything away from an excellently playing Bayer
side, Werder was also the best guest a home team can ask for: Trying to
play Leverkusen, the 2nd best home team in the league (Bayern), out of
their own house is suicidal itself but getting scored upon through set
pieces and counterattacks (on the road!) is just plain dumb.
Werder's once again non-existing "defense" (missing German
international defender Frank Baumann with the flu) led by the pathetic
Verlaat totally fell apart after the 3-0 and with a little more concentrated
finishing Bayer could have easily won 5, 6-0. Lúcio received standing
ovations when he left the pitch in the 82nd minute after rendering Pizarro
who had been in blisteringly good form in the past weeks useless. [TL]
Attendance : 22,500 (sold out)
10 MARCH 2001
FREIBURG 2-2 DORTMUND
Sellimi 45 (Pen), 58 Dedê 19
Reina 43
Freiburg weakly headed out a corner, Dedê returned it with a
wild missile from well over 30 meters out - incredible efford !
Reina fired high into the net from a tight angle when released
by Rosický on the counter attack. Willi jumped into Metzelder a
minute later, penalty, Sellimi converted in Kobiashvili's absence.
Iashvili swapped passes with Kehl who found Sellimi again, the
Tunesian forward beat Lehmann with a delicate lob for the 2-2. [TL]
Attendance: 25,000 (sold out)
BAYERN MÜNCHEN 2-0 COTTBUS
Scholl 24
Effenberg 38
Three fantastic saves by Cottbus keeper Piplica in the first 15 minutes:
Jancker at close range after a low cross by Élber, Scholl on a wicked
free kick to the near top corner from 60 degrees on the right side, and
Jancker on a header. In this phase Piplica appeared to bring Élber down
after Salihamidzic danced around his defender and put a diagonal pass
into the box... the replays showed this to be at least a 50-50 call
leaning towards penalty. But this early you just wait to create more
chances. And it happened... Lizarazu put Scholl through on a great
split pass and Scholl scored a great fake left shoot right with the
outside of his right foot. This was Lizarazu's first assist or goal in
over a year. Élber ran open down left but skied the cross... Piplica
made his first error misjudging it and getting out-jumped by Jancker who
headed it down to the 5 meter line. Effenberg outran the unsuspecting
defense and slotted it in for the 2-0. Cottbus ran one dangerous
counterattack at the end of the half; had they been Lyon it would have
scored, enough said. Élber was put through with perfect timing, alone
on Piplica, but it was wrongly called offside. More from this linesman
later.
In the second half Bayern conserved energy for Wednesday's CL group
final against Arsenal, but still had the better chances against a
horribly weak Cottbus side. Paulo Sergio was put in for Sagnol and
Salihamidzic moved to right back. Two more great saves by Piplica: a
long, low shot by Effenberg after a return pass back from Jancker, and
a great diagonal give and go at 78' over about 15 m laterally and 25 m
vertically; diagonal pass from Paulo Sergio with the outside of the foot
from center to Élber on the right side, cross to the far post back to
Paulo Sergio, whose volley was saved at point blank range. Another
chance for Jancker as his header looped over Piplica but was saved off
the line. Cottbus magic man Miriuta missed a free kick from 20 m
diagonal left, by some 10-20 cm over the bar and into the top netting.
Then, at 85' a short through pass by Miriuta broke Bayern's offsides
trap and creaetd a very nice goal, except that this was also wrongly
called back offside. What would have been... etc. Bayern safely rode
the game down after that for a much needed, pride restoring win.
Schalke and Dortmund both drew so Bayern is again on top, by one
point. Watch out for Hertha, who are now only three points out tied
for third with Leverkusen who also won at home on Friday. [BS]
Attendance : 38,000
BOCHUM 2-3 KÖLN
Buckley 23 Arveladze 38
Schindzielorz 31 Kreuz 61
Pivaljevic 80
Buckley gave the hosts the lead with a left-footed blast from way
outside the area. The South African winger then played a good through
ball to first time captain Schindzielorz who coolly made it 2-0.
Arveladze pulled one back for Köln with a copy of Buckley's goal.
Lottner combined with Timm to give Kreuz an open look at the goal,
the former U-21 playmaker with the equalizer. Pivaljevic snatched
the game winner after clobbering 3 VfL defenders and drilling a low
shot into the near corner. All 4 red cards were justifiable. [TL]
Red Cards : Sichone 33 (Köln), Drincic 40 (Bochum), Springer 82 and
Lottner 85 (both Köln)
Attendance : 21,683
HERTHA 1-0 ROSTOCK
Dárdai 90
Simunic centred for Reiss who couldn't find a way through the tight
Hansa defense so he played the ball back to the edge of the box from
where Dárdai just like against 'Haching cracked in a stunning volley,
this time his 1-0 was also the game winner. Hertha, without their trio
of internationals (Beinlich, Deisler, Rehmer), are not playing nice but
effective football in 2001. [TL]
Red Card : Lantz 90 (Rostock)
Attendance : 40,895
WOLFSBURG 6-1 UNTERHACHING
Kühbauer 11 Seifert 17
Schnoor 40
Rische 47
Maric 70
Munteanu 79
Akonnor 87 (Pen)
Kühbauer headed in Müller's cross. Seifert slid in the equalizer from
Straube's centre, Akpoborie gifted Straube the free run at goal with a
terrible hospital pass. Schnoor fired Wolfsburg back into the lead with
an incredible bomb from almost 30 meters out. Rische made it 3-1 from
Müller's centre 2 minutes into the 2nd half, Maric scored the 4th on
the breakaway courtesy of Kühbauer's through pass, Munteanu chipped in
as well following good work by Maric and Akonnor completed the half
dozen from the penalty spot (foul Novak on Kühbauer). [TL]
Red Card : Spizak 38 (Unterhaching)
Attendance : 12,103
FRANKFURT 0-0 SCHALKE
Schalke won a point in Frankfurt thanks to very poor finishing by
Eintracht striker Kryszalowicz who wasted several krysztal klear
opportunities. Still the "Knappen" had the biggest chance of the
game but even Sand only managed to strike the krossbar. Jörg Böhme,
the driving force in the Kings' Blues midfield in the 1st leg of
the season is totally off form following his suspension. [TL]
Attendance : 37,400
11 MARCH 2001
HAMBURG 2-2 STUTTGART
Barbarez 10, 44 Thiam 18
Ganea 80
Mahdavikia swung in a corner, Bordon and Rui Marques rattled into
each other so Barbarez had enough space to head in his 16th of the
season. Tøfting, without any pressure, gifted the ball away in mid
field, Rui Marques quickly released Thiam who took it directly to
the hesitating substitute sweeper Kovac and fired the ball past
Butt into the far corner. Todt, playing a string of games for the
first time since joining Stuttgart from Bremen 2 years ago, forced
Hollerbach into a great save on the line.
Thiam unluckily tackled the ball to Meijer who plugged it through
to Barbarez, the once again white hot Bosnian international hit
#17 in off the post a minute before half time. Barbarez could have
decided the game but with the 'keeper rammed into the middle of the
area like a steel pillar he headed just wide. Dundee fired Thiam's
centre into a ruck of players, the rebound fell to Ganea who came
off the bench to circle in the well deserved equalizer.
German international Ingo Hertzsch was benched for 90 minutes even
though he was match fit. 36-year-old fossil Fischer played in his
place - go figure... [TL]
Attendance : 40,065
KAISERSLAUTERN 3-2 1860 MÜNCHEN
Lokvenc 46 Weidenfeller 58 (og)
Bjelica 48 Bierofka 69
Hristov 72
FCK rookie 'keeper Weidenfeller, once again in the nets for the injured
Koch, fantastically directed Häßler's free kick against the crossbar to
start this game. Mario Basler started a little brawl with own teammate
Hristov over his slack marking, kind of reminded me of Blackburn a few
years ago... ;) 30 seconds into the 2nd half Kaiserslautern opened the
scoring: Ratinho almost snapped Tyce's ankles with a double stepover
dribble, Lokvenc put away his cross with a delightful backheel, already
his 2nd of the season (Köln) - marvellous goal !
Bjelica made it 2-0 with a tremendous half volley 2 minutes later, his
first goal since joining 'Lautern in the winter break. The Red Devils
then threw their lead away: Centre Borimirov, deflection Schjønberg
(yes, he's still playing), the ball rolled through Weidenfellers hands
and bounced off his arse into the net. Andy Brehme who has made the
FCK the best team in the league since taking over (he has taken 32
points from 18 games including this one) was sent into the stands for
whining.
Bierofka came on for Paßlack in the 51st minute and grabbed the 2-2
equalizer only 20 minutes later : After a sharp Häßler centre caused
lots of confusion and panic in the "Teufelsabwehr" (Devils' Defense)
he coolly controlled the ball and fired a turn-around shot into the
near corner. Bjelica played a give-and-go with Ratinho, tanked his
way into the area and fed Hristov for the game winner only 3 minutes
after the team already seemed K.O. [TL]
Attendance : 39,172
Ciao,
Tim
[TL] = Tim Leidecker
[BS] = Bruce Scott
http://milanmania.com
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