Last night, Dimitar Berbatov scored for Tottenham Hotspur in a thrilling 4-4 draw with Chelsea at White Hart Lane. However, it was his glaring miss in the last minute that will live longer in the memory. I’ve never rated the Bulgarian top class as this article from three years ago this month while he played for Bayer Leverkusen shows…
Brian O’Driscoll, our man in Berlin, examines the woeful performances of Bundesliga clubs in European competition last week and wonders just how many German sides will progress in the Champions’ League.
Learning Lessons As Berbatov Goes To Finishing School
Optimism reigned just over a week ago as German clubs entered European competition buoyed by impressive qualification campaigns and draws that provided prime opportunities for progression. So what went wrong?
With three clubs remaining in the Champions’ League, the Bundesliga was second only to the Premiership and on a par with Serie A in terms of representation in the continent’s major club tournament. However, after the first-legs of the second round, it would be naïve or arrogant to think it will maintain that position when Europe’s top club competition is whittled down to eight clubs next Wednesday night.
Only Bayern Munich look a genuinely good bet to progress further, holding a 3-1 lead over Arsenal going in to what promises to be a nervy night at Highbury. Yet, even this is something of a disappointment for the current Bundesliga leaders, as Bayern had already obliterated the Premiership champions in Bavaria, before contriving to cast aside their impregnable position in allowing Kolo Toure an away-goal.
Such careless largesse could yet come back to haunt Felix Magath’s men, and will certainly ensure a wary Bayern response in London. However, the German side are renowned for mental strength, something their English opponents are famously bereft of. With Michael Ballack likely to return for the second-leg, it’s hard to see Bayern throwing away their current advantage. They are simply the better side.
While some sections of the English media scratch their heads in pondering Arsenal’s European failures, it might be worth suggesting that coach Wenger and his players just aren’t up to the job at the highest level. While they play magnificent, attacking, fluid football when their tails are up, they generally reserve such form for the sub-standard Premiership – a league where greed and commercial selfishness have ensured that fourth place is the new championship – and for suspect foreign opposition on rare European nights where the stakes are less than monumental. Given their fall from grace in England this season, elimination to this Arsenal would expose the Bundesliga as completely bereft of an international-quality competitor. In this sense, the stakes are high not only for the two competing clubs next Wenesday, but also for the German club game as a whole.
This is because Germany’s other two representatives Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen experienced wretched nights in ties with Olympique Lyonnais and Liverpool. Bremen, of whom many – including this writer – had high hopes of, were simply reckless against the formidable triple French champions at the Weserstadion. They attacked to a ludicrous degree, pinned back their experienced rivals, missed their chances, and were then dismantled by rapier-like French thrusts that musketeers would have admired. Essentially, Bremen were victims of their own inexperience at this level. Lyon have been competing in this competition for the last three seasons, and have learned well. Bremen will put up a fight in France, under no pressure to perform, and will probably restore some pride.
However, to all intents and purposes, they’ve been eliminated and must now learn from the clinical manner of their defeat. Indeed, an immediate benefit is likely to emerge: their domestic championship can now be defended with full attention. I have long propounded that theirs is a squad too thin to stretch over the twin challenges of domestic and continental football. Now, they can concentrate on bridging the four-point Bundesliga gap to Bayern and Schalke. Given a four point-cushion over fourth-placed Hertha BSC, Bremen look sure to return to the Champions’ League in one capacity or another next season, perhaps even as double German champions.
So what of Leverkusen? Inexperience is not a mitigating factor in their 3-1 defeat at Liverpool. Profligacy is, however. Dimitar Berbatov, the Andy Cole of German club football, has improved since the club last made the continental showpiece in 2002, and has developed into an excellent target-man. However, he still seems to lack the ruthlessness of a truly world-class forward, and, at this stage, is unlikely ever to develop it. Had he taken even his easiest chance last week, Leverkusen would be in a far stronger position. As it is, the disastrous blunder of Jerzy Dudek, that handed Franca with the away-goal lifeline, has given Leverkusen a large get-out-of-jail card for the return at the fortress-like BayArena. I still believe the works club will turn the tie around, but given the task at hand, Liverpool have got to start favourites. Many things must go right for Bayer to progress, Berbatov’s finishing first and foremost.
Attitude is something else that was suspect at Anfield. Paul Freier had a nightmare, caught in possession by Igor Biscan for the first Liverpool goal, then ducking with Robson Ponte in the wall for John-Arne Riise’s free-kick second. Gutlessness is a trait that has yet to win a big European tie. If they can address this issue, and improve up front (and it can’t really get any worse), they have every chance of winning 2-0 against a side that travels poorly.
While the Bundesliga may yet escape with two qualifiers in the Champions’ League, the UEFA Cup has been a complete whitewash. Second division Alemannia Aachen deserve great credit for being within 10 minutes of dumping out high-flying Eredivisie contenders AZ 67 Alkmaar, but there were no laurels for VfB Stuttgart or Schalke 04, both beaten at home after creditable away results. A scoreless draw in Parma was never a great result for Stuttgart, given the importance of away-goals in modern-day competition. That they succumbed in extra time underlines this point. If you play 90 minutes on your opponents’ ground, and then 120 on your own, the odds are against you in the away-goals stakes when facing a rival of similar ability.
As for Schalke, there can be no excuses. Failure to hold their advantage in Donetsk against Shakhtar was fatal, and only over-confidence can be proposed as the reason for their defeat. Team-selection was strong, so the notion that Ralf Rangnick was concentrating on the Bundesliga can be dismissed out of hand. Perhaps the players were elsewhere? Then again, for once, isn’t it fair to ask the question: are Schalke good enough? It’s not the first time they’ve lost to supposedly inferior opposition. Like Arsenal, could it be that ingrained character deficiencies will forever bring their baleful influence to bear when push comes to shove? As it stands, only a league title success would begin the process of addressing that question.
So why are Bayern the only reliable continental competitors from the Bundesliga? Their success, of course, is based on two factors: wealth and good management. Few clubs are as well-run, and only Borussia Dortmund, of German clubs, can claim a greater domestic fanbase. Yet, Dortmund are facing financial collapse and bankruptcy, and this complete commercial failure places the boardroom success of the Bavarian club in starker positive relief. Uli Hoeness, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and Franz Beckenbauer are canny top-level operators, and coach Felix Magath has inculcated his particular vision of the game on a squad that is strengthened at every opportunity. The summer sale of Dortmund’s Torsten Frings to Bayern sums up all that is wrong about the German game. Like Wayne Rooney to Manchester United, when a top domestic talent with his best years ahead of him goes from one large club to another simply to stave off financial meltdown, you know that genuine competition, like the reputations of the selling clubs, is becoming a thing of the past.
Brian A. O’Driscoll
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