Buzz Alert: Wolves Secure Victory; Reggiani Makes Impactful Debut!
Three things we learnt from the Bundesliga matchday 26 afternoon kick-offs – Chaos in Leverkusen, Wolfsburg continue to struggle and Luca Reggiani Bundesliga matchday 26 opened with a big game at the bottom of the table, as Borussia Mönchengladbach beat St. Pauli 2-0. The biggest Saturday afternoon Bundesliga game saw Bayer Leverkusen host Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund played Augsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt faced Heidenheim, and Hoffenheim were against strugglers Wofsburg.
Here are the three things we learnt: Chaos in Leverkusen: The standout game of the afternoon was Leverkusen vs Bayern, and it delivered. Kasper Hjulmand’s side took an early lead through Aleix Garcia, and then it was more or less the focus of the referee and VAR. First, Jonathan Tah would have a goal ruled out for handball.
Then Bayern would be down to 10 men when Nicolas Jackson’s tackle on Martin Terrier (similar to Nico Schlotterbeck’s two weeks ago), was overturned from a yellow to a red. In the second half, Leverkusen became their own worst enemy and were too sloppy on the ball, constantly giving easy passes away, and it looked as if they were punished when Janis Blaswich played a pass straight to a Bayern player, who squared it to Kane to make it 1-1, but VAR intervened once again. The Bundesliga leaders would get their equaliser when Luis Diaz made it 1-1, minutes later.
D Diaz would then be sent off for a second yellow card, following a dive in the Leverkusen box, meaning Bayern were now down to nine men. It looked as if Jonas Hofmann had scored the winner in the 93rd minute; however, VAR would intervene once again to rule it out for offside. So, if you were keeping count, two red cards, three goals disallowed and VAR getting involved four times.
The good news is that next month, these two teams will go at it once again in the DFB Pokal semi-final at the BayArena. Dieter Hecking fails to win his first game for Wolfsburg: For the past few weeks, you could make the argument that Wolfsburg were unlikely with their results, and their performances warranted something better. Today, in their first game under Dieter Hecking, that was not the case; in fact, it was the opposite.