Bayer

Bayer Leverkusen  2  Atletico Madrid  1

UEFA Champions League – Group Stage

The Football Weekend 2019 was going to be a little different this time around.

I was flying solo as Mr H Senior was unable to make the trip, so I must admit that it did feel a bit strange sat on the train from Amsterdam Schipol to Duiven on the Tuesday morning.

Day One was always going to be a big day as it was what seems to be the now annual trip across the border to watch Borussia Dortmund take on Inter Milan at the wondrous Signal Iduna Park.

Dortmund has been blogged before so I won’t spend too much time dwelling on it, but with five of us in Hendrik’s new motor, complete with cans of Heineken, we were parked up a good four hours before kick off, meaning a good session was going to be had in the brilliant Strobels pub which sits in the corner of the stadium.

Along with myself and host Theo, we had Hendrik of course, along with Jasja and Edwin, and as you can probably imagine, it got a bit lively given the time to beer ratio! The highlight in the bar being the moment Theo spotted two members of the Dutch National Squad management team. They got the chance to have photographs and a quick question and answer session with us before beating a safe retreat!

The game was superb, the strongly supported Italians had a 2-0 half time lead but the hosts produced a superb second period to win 3-2.

The following day also promised much, this time with Daan at the wheel and with Jasja again with us along with his mate Maurice, we crossed the broder once more, before finding the trusty City Centre car park in Leverkusen. I’ll be honest, Leverkusen as a place is not worth visiting, it’s dead and it’s drab, but thankfully our strategic car parking spot was within minutes of Leverkusen Mitte Station, and with that was a much more attractive option.

Cologne, or Koln as the locals call it, is a mere fifteen minutes away on the train, and before long we were stood in awe looking at the amazing Dom cathedral. it’s so impressive, we actually used valuable beer time looking around it! Before long though, we’d found our way to the Alter Markt and the impressive Corkonian Irish pub where we’d had lots of fun with the Arsenal fans a few years previously! This time it was a shade quieter.

Koln is a wonderful city, but time was becoming tight so we headed back to Leverkusen, where the aesthetic highlight for me is the fantastic Bayer factory sign that lights up the evening sky. A ten minute walk from the station, through the park, is the BayArena stadium, the home of Bayer Leverkusen, the club formed in 1904 for the workers of the famous factory.

It’s impossible to compare Leverkusen with Dortmund, in terms of both scale and history, so I guess when you visit Bayer the night after a packed Signal Iduna, it does feel a little bit like a comedown, but that’s not to say it’s still not a fabulous club with a great facility.

Leverkusen have arguably punched above their weight for years now. They rose to prominence in the Nineties with some big name signings like Bernd Schuster and Rudi Voller, while Manager’s Christope Daum and Klaus Topmoller took them to the edge of glory, but sadly, with four second placed finishes between 1997 and 2002, the Bundesliga title was the Holy Grail that they couldn’t achieve.

The club has remained a powerful force in Germany though, regularly qualifying for European competition and of course once reaching a Champions League Final before losing 2-1 to Real Madrid. Their history is very much made up of ‘Nearly’ moments, leading to the media dubbing them ‘Neverkusen.’

We’ve been to the BayArena a couple of times before, once to see Aris Salonika in a Europa League game and also to see AS Monaco in the Champions League, but it had been a few years now since our most recent visit. As a ground it isn’t the biggest, holding just shy of 30,000, but it is very atmospheric. It’s a typical bowl shaped construction, with the Ultras at one end, while the opposite end is made up of largely corporate facilities.

It wasn’t quite full, but I suspect the official attendance figure would suggest a sell out on the night, despite the away supporters section being half full at best.

The first half was a poor spectacle, with the hosts taking the lead just before the break thanks to an own goal from Thomas Partey. Kevin Volland made it 2-0 ten minutes after the interval and all looked good in the World for Dutchman Peter Bosz and his merry men, despite Nadiem Amiri getting a straight red five minutes before the end.

Madrid were poor, but any team managed by Diego Simeone is never going to give up. Four minutes into the five of added time and the previously ineffective Alvaro Morata found the net, and then moments later he had a great chance to make it 2-2, but failed to find the target. A draw would have been harsh on Leverkusen who were the only team who appeared to be trying to win the game.

We made it back to the car in good time and were easily away from Leverkusen and onto the Autobahn. Base camp was made around 1am local time (bearing in mind games kick off at 9pm), giving us just enough time for one more beer before bed. You will see a theme developing here over the course of the next few blogs.

A glass was of course raised to Mr L Senior during the course of the day, and as we exchanged images and messages on WhatsApp, you sensed he wished he was with us.

Maybe next year….