1.07.2021Bayer 04

From the archives: The disgrace of ‘Bühl’

Bayer 04 Leverkusen were champions of the Regional League West in 1968 and just missed out on promotion to the first Bundesliga in the play-offs. Just six weeks after the last group match there was the first round of the Western German Cup at the ‘Im Bühl’ sports ground with a local derby against SV Schlebusch, who played a tier below their big rivals in the Middle Rhine Association League. Back then, qualification for the DFB Cup came via the regional cup competitions.

The Leverkusen city clash was played on Sunday 28 July in front of 4,000 spectators. The weather was sunny with pleasant temperatures. Not so pleasant was the shale pitch at Bühl that presented the Bayer 04 players with problems. The incredible happened on 76 minutes: Krumbach made it 1-0 for the Black and Yellows. Bayer 04 were lucky and can thank goalkeeper Hans Benzler that the defeat was not by a bigger margin. The Werkself had one chance to level with a free kick from Klaus Görtz that drew a brilliant save from the Schlebusch keeper Schiller as turned the ball onto the post. The clearly peeved Bayer 04 coach Theo Kirchberg summed up the game as follows: "Professional players must be able to beat an amateur team on a hard pitch. There are no excuses. It's a disgrace for us."

Revenge came a year later and this time the professional players made no mistakes from the start. Bayer 04 sailed through to the second round with a 7-0 victory.

The third and to date the last time there was a clash with SV Schlebusch was on 25 July 1971. Bayer 04 clocked up a 5-1 victory in front of 2,000 spectators.

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