Bitter evening for the Bundesliga clubs in the Europa League: TSG Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen each missed their place in the second round of the Europa League on Thursday. Hoffenheim lost in the home game to the Norwegian representative Molde FK with 0: 2 (0: 1). The first leg had ended 3: 3.
Leverkusen also lost their home game against Young Boys Bern with 0: 2 (0: 0). After a 3: 4 defeat in the first leg, this also meant the end of the competition, in which there is now no longer a German team. The Hoffenheim players reacted almost stunned to the end. “After the two games it is madness that you are stuck,” said goalkeeper Oliver Baumann, completely frustrated. “The second half wasn’t enough, so it was deserved in the end. Somehow it shouldn’t be. “
[Mehr guten Sport aus lokaler Sicht finden Sie – wie auch Politik und Kultur – in unseren Leute-Newslettern aus den zwölf Berliner Bezirken. Hier kostenlos zu bestellen: leute.tagesspiegel.de]
The outsider from Norway could hardly understand his success in the empty Sinsheim stadium on Thursday evening. Eirik Andersen frightened the hosts with the 1-0 in the 20th minute and set the end of the game with the 2-0. Dortmund’s Norwegian star striker Erling Haaland congratulated his former team via Twitter immediately after the final whistle.
Hoffenheim had previously failed to take advantage of numerous chances, as they did in the 3: 3 first leg in Villarreal, Spain a week ago. After an unbeaten preliminary round, the Kraichgauer experienced their first European Cup defeat of the season – and the end.
Bayer Leverkusen and his coach Peter Bosz fared no better. After the elimination against Berne, despite the club’s confession to the contrary, this is likely to be in need of explanation.
The regular substitute goalkeeper Niklas Lomb had seriously blundered in the 0: 1 by Jordan Siebatcheu (48th), as he had four days before in the league game at FC Augsburg, when he dropped a deflected cross from his hand. Christian Fassnacht made the decision with his goal four minutes before the final whistle. For Bern and the coach Gerardo Seoane, who is courted by Borussia Mönchengladbach, it is meanwhile the first entry into a European round of 16 in 60 years.
The guests from Switzerland were the nicer team in the first half. Bayer did not have a really significant chance of scoring before the break. The most extraordinary scene was involuntarily created by Bosz, who wanted to pick up a ball on the edge of the field, slipped away and then cheered himself on with a wild gesture.
Bayer sports director Rudi Völler looked up imploringly at the break whistle. But instead of with support from above, the second half began with a moment of shock when Siebatcheu, who had already won twice in the first leg, took advantage of the Lomb mishap and headed the ball over the line from a meter. Leverkusen now ran enthusiastically and wildly, but also without planning or ideas. (dpa)
–
